Another Chance
by Thursaz
Summary: Barricade is captured and taken to the Autobot HQ as a prisoner. Complications arise, and later Megatron is reawakened. Where will Barricade stand in all this? Barricade/Sam friendship, Bumblebee/Sam slash
1. A Revival and a Fight

A/N Similarities with this to any other work is (usually) accidental. I may have accidentally picked it up as 'fact' due to not knowing much about Transformers as I've only watched Animated, Cybertron and the 2007 movie. The non-accidental incident would be Sam as a mech, which I believe is a popular theory?

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. If I did... Well, you don't want to know. Seriously.

Summary: Barricade is captured and taken to the Autobot HQ as a prisoner. Complications arise, and later Megatron is reawakened. Where will Barricade stand in all this? Barricade/Sam friendship, Bumblebee/Sam

Chapter One: Revival & a Fight

"Will it work?" Sam asked hopefully, as Ratchet finished mending the rest of Jazz's torn body. Sam hadn't known Jazz for long- Heck, they'd barely talked- But he still felt some affection for the Autobot. To him, the Autobots were a second family, and losing even one of them hurt... doubly so when he looked into the optics of his friends, and saw the grief that sometimes flickered through. And when those optics in particular were Bumblebee's, Sam's heart all but broke.

Ratchet put away the blowtorch and began tightening some bolts. "I don't know, kid..." he sighed. "Sam, are you sure you want to try this? Scans indicate that the residue energy from the Allspark in your body should be able to activate the shard that Optimus retrieved- However, there is no telling what could happen."

Sam frowned. "I told you, I'll do anything to bring Jazz back. I'm not gonna change my mind."

Ratchet sighed, finishing the last of the repairs, before Optimus handed the shard to Sam, who gripped it tightly. He held it over Jazz's body and concentrated on reviving Jazz, as Bumblebee began to sing to the Allspark, asking it to help with a final task.

A burst of bright light engulfed Sam an instant later.

---

Sam frowned, suddenly finding himself somewhere... else. The room Sam was in was entirely light- a glaring, sharp sort of light. Yet Sam found that he wasn't blinded. Sam turned to survey the area, but his thoughts were interrupted.

"What would you give up for the return of your friend?" A voice seemed to echo, reverberating throughout the room.

Sam frowned, but answered without hesitation. "Anything."

At this, the voice seemed to relax, letting out a chuckle that lightened the atmosphere and cleared Sam's mind, feeding him information- he supposed this was similar to what his friends seemed to call a databurst, though how he could receive one was beyond him- so that he knew who the voice was. Primus.

"And if you were to become a Cybertronian? Watching as your mortal friends pass in the blink of an eye?" Primus asked, solemn again.

Sam blinked in confusion, this time hesitating a second. Give up his life? Watch as Mikaela and Miles grew old, while he remained, without aging? But he knew what he had to do- Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots came first in his heart. If he had to sacrifice his humanity... So be it. Nodding resolutely, Sam answered, "I'd do that, too. ...But what does this have to do with Jazz?"

Primus laughed again, and Sam could almost hear the smile in his voice. "Child, the energy in your body is nowhere near enough to revive your friend. Not even the Allspark can revive a mech this long dead. If Jazz is to be revived, you will have to channel my power through you and into the shard, then into Jazz. The wave of pure energy is not something a human can survive. Therefore, I will change you into a Cybertronian, first."

Sam nodded, but a thoughtful look crossed his face. "What about-"

"I will databurst how to do the most essential things, like transforming and some basic fighting techniques as well as a file on Cybertronian anatomy." Primus interrupted, anticipating his question. "You will not be much larger than Bumblebee and will need to know the weak spots in an average Cybertronian. Now, chose an alt form and we can continue."

"Alright... but hey, Primus? You have anything to tell the 'bots? I'm sure they'd love to hear from you."

"Tell them they're doing a great job as Autobots, then." Primus answered, and Sam was sure he could hear a smile in his voice. "Oh... and the rest of the Autobots are in the Aeros Galaxy, 42,575th solar system in. They met up there after an incident involving Wheeljack attempting to build a space bridge, I believe."

Sam nodded, and went ahead to decide on an alt form.

"One more thing..." Primus suddenly added. "That's not residual Allspark energy. You have a tiny bit of my Spark in you, enough so that you can heal hurt Cybertronians to some extent and at the very least maintain their condition."

Before Sam could say more or comment, the light flashed brighter until Sam had to shield his eyes.

---

Sam screamed as a felt raw power and energy flashing through him into the shard. It felt like lightning was coursing through him, lending power to the shard, and the power increased until Sam felt he would explode.

Ratchet frowned- His scans of Sam couldn't be right. "Optimus, Allspark energy readings are off the charts! This is far more than what Sam had in him... He seems to be getting the energy from somewhere."

"Where?" Optimus frowned, worried for the health of his medical officer. 'Off the charts' meant the energy was even greater than that of the Allspark, since Cybertronian charts could measure a huge amount of energy. That much energy being created just didn't seem possible.

"It's coming from the direction of... Cybertron." Ratchet looked up in wonder as he said this, running a systems check to make sure his scanners weren't malfunctioning. "Optimus, how is this possible?"

Optimus shook his head. "I do not know, Ratchet..." he looked up as the bright light began to fade. "...But I believe we are about to find out."

---

Sam looked up as the pain faded, and his eyes met with- The ceiling? Oh, right, he was Cybertronian now. That probably meant he was taller. He looked down at Jazz, whose optics were just beginning to flicker to life.

No one, however, was looking at Jazz, besides Sam. Ratchet, Bumblebee and Optimus were staring in astonishment at Sam, who turned and blinked. "What? Did Primus make me ugly or something?"

"Er- No." Optimus answered, still dumbstruck. "But how?"

"Explanations later!" Ratchet ordered. "Everyone! OUT NOW! I need to do some scans on Jazz to make sure he's fully recovered."

Bumblebee grinned at the 'new and improved' Sam. "You're actually handsome, by Cybertronian standards," he answered cheerfully. Sam rolled his optics... Or, well, he had the 'I'm rolling my eyes' tone, at any rate.

"Whatever, let's just go before Ratchet blows a gasket."

"Agreed."

---

"Jazz is fine." Ratchet walked out of the medbay, sounding relieved. Jazz walked out behind him.

"So, what's been go- Whoa, who's that? Never seen him before. Funky armour." Jazz blinked as he stared for a second at Sam, whose armour was black with silver streaks. The plating shone as though newly polished (which it technically was). Sam was just a little taller than Bumblebee. "Wait, let me guess." Jazz stared hard at Sam's face. Sam twitched- he was beginning to feel somewhat uncomfortable.

"It's me, Sam." Sam smiled up at the newly revived Autobot. Who was pouting.

"I wanted to guess."

"So Sam, how exactly did this happen?" Optimus asked, curiously. Sam gave Optimus a quick rundown of what he had experienced with Primus. When he was done, all of the Autobots were staring at him in awe. "You spoke with _Primus_?" Optimus stared.

"Yup, and he databurst to me how to use this form, too." Sam said, cheerfully. "Thankfully, I don't have to scan an alt mode since Primus incorporated it into my form."

"Your alt form being...?" Bumblebee questioned.

Sam shrugged. "I made it up."

Optimus stared. "Won't that attract attention?"

"Nope, I can just say it's still a prototype. Bes-" Abruptly, the alarm went off. Optimus rushed to the computer.

"Barricade's been spotted just south of here." he announced.

"What are we waiting for?" Sam said excitedly. "Let's go!" He transformed into a sleek black and silver car and rushed off. Bumblebee followed, with Ratchet yelling, "Hey! I haven't checked you yet!"

As Optimus, Jazz and Ironhide left, Ratchet grumbled, slowly trailing behind.

---

"Slag!" Barricade muttered as his censors picked up _six_ Autobots heading towards him- Wait, six? There were only four Autobots now, with Jazz dead. That meant that the Autobots had two new arrivals. Frowning, he stopped. Running wouldn't help, but he had no chance against six Autobots, either. Then again, he wouldn't go down without a fight.

Barricade transformed as the first two of the Autobots arrived. He recognised the second one as Bumblebee, but who the slag was the first one?

Sam transformed, a grin evident in his voice. "Bet you're wondering who I am. This is Ladiesman217... Now known as Nightslicer."

Barricade snorted unbelievingly. "Even if that were true- which is very unlikely- Why in the Pit would I care?!" With that, he charged his plasma cannon and shot at Sam, who ducked and rolled.

Bumblebee laughed, transforming. "Just thought of that, did you Sam? I'm more used to Sam, you know."

"So am I. I just want the Decepticons to know me by that name." Sam grinned back, dodging another one of Barricade's shots and sending out a shot of his own, discreetly launching a cutting disk at the same time. Barricade, dodging the shot, rolled right into the path of the disk, which cut through some wires. Barricade let out a hiss of pain.

"It'll take more than that to defeat me!" Barricade growled angrily, sending a shot at Sam and ducking to avoid one of his shots at the same time, rolling toward Bumblebee. Abruptly he came up with his cannon pointed right at Bee's spark chamber.

"Attack and your friend dies." Barricade growled.

Sam shrugged. "Oops- Guess you should pay attention to which wires are cut, huh?" At that exact same time, Barricade's cannon powered down.

"What?!" Barricade screeched angrily. "You'll pay for that!" Launching himself at Sam, he punched into Sam's face, torso and legs in a flurry of punches. Sam staggered back- He wasn't a melee fighter. He did, however, manage to jam a disc into Barricade's other cannon. Growling angrily, Barricade shot Sam with the aforementioned cannon twice before it powered down.

---

When Optimus arrived, they found Sam in stasis, a heavily injured but still conscious Bumblebee, and a severely injured and very unconscious Barricade.

"...I kind of lost it when he knocked Sam into stasis." Bumblebee admitted.

"Good!" Ironhide grinned a feral grin. "The sooner we turn this Decepticon slag into a heap of scrapmetal, the better!" Aiming at Barricade, Ironhide charged his cannons.

"Easy, Ironhide," Optimus cautioned. "We should just capture him."

"What?! Why?!"

"_Because, _Ironhide, with the Allspark gone we are the last of our kind. We should discuss more in depth whether we should kill him or not." Optimus answered, glaring.

"...Whatever." Ironhide muttered.

---

"Ugh... I feel like I just got pummeled, then shot, then pummeled again.." Sam groaned, trying to get up.

"That's because you DID!" Ratchet yelled, glaring at Sam. "What glitch made you do such an idiotic thing as to attack Barricade when you JUST GOT INTO YOUR NEW BODY?!"

"New body...?" Sam mumbled. Then his optics widened in horror and realisation. "Oh, no. Nonononono! I thought it was a dream!"

"That's no excuse!" Ratchet retorted. "And are you saying you wouldn't have helped Jazz if you'd known it was real?!"

"Of COURSE I would have!" Sam replied indignantly. "But what will Mikaela say?!"

Ratchet promptly ignored him and muttered, "You're just lucky your self-repair works so abnormally fast." Doing one final scan of Sam, he told him that nothing else was wrong and he had somehow managed to heal in just six hours from the incident. With the 'bruises' taking all of two seconds to heal.

Sam nodded in thanks, and walked out of the medbay- And was promptly hugged by Bumblebee.

"I'm so sorry, Sam." Bumblebee said, guiltily. "I know I should've helped you, but I figured you'd want to fight yourself, and you seemed to be doing pretty well, and I thought you should have some experience, and when you did get hurt I couldn't react in ti-"

"Bumblebee, shut up." Sam interrupted. Bumblebee abruptly stopped and stared at Sam with a questioning, and _still_ guilt-filled look. "I'm fine now, alright? And that's what matters. So you don't have to keep feeling guilty over something that wasn't your fault. You're right- There's no way I would've let you help me anyway."

"But-"

"But nothing." Sam glared, daring Bumblebee to say more. Bumblebee subsided, looking away. At that point, Sam focused enough to realise something. "Bumblebee! You're hurt!" Anxiously, he ran over to Bumblebee and began to inspect his injuries.

"It's nothing," Bumblebee insisted, pushing Sam away. "I'm still functioning, so I told Ratchet to treat you first."

"Bumblebee..." Sam frowned. He shouldn't have done that. Then again... "Let me try something." Walking forward, Sam placed his hand on Bumblebee's chest, concentrating on repairing him to health. Sam grinned as he felt a tingling energy flow through him and into Bumblebee, who was beginning to glow.

"Sam, how are you...?" Bumblebee started in amazement, then quieted interrupted when his armour seemingly came to life, undenting itself and knitting back together where the metal had been torn. After twenty minutes, Bumblebee was fully healed.

At that point, Optimus, Jazz, and Ironhide walked into the room and stopped in surprise. "What just happened?" Optimus questioned. "How did Ratchet repair that much damage from two mechs in just six hours and twenty minutes?"

"He didn't." Sam answered. He then proceeded to tell the Autobots of how he had a part of Primus' Spark in him, and could heal. Apparently that applied to himself as well.

"Primus did WHAT?!" Ratchet burst out of the medbay. Apparently, he'd been listening in. "What else didn't you tell us?!"

"Uh..." Sam thought back to his encounter with Primus. "...The rest of the Autobots are apparently in the Aeros Galaxy, 42,575th solar system in?"

The reaction to the news was very varied. Optimus smiled, Bumblebee and Jazz whooped, Ironhide and Ratchet proceeded to give Sam a yelling that would last a lifetime for 'not telling them sooner'.

"Oh!" Sam suddenly realised something. "What happened to Barricade?"

Ironhide frowned. "The piece of slag was captured. Optimus wanted him alive, but I wanted him dead. We were waiting for you to wake up to decide."

Sam blinked. "Why wait for me?"

"Bumblebee and myself think Barricade should be killed," Ironhide explained. "But Ratchet and Optimus want him alive."

"And Jazz?"

"I haven't exactly met Barricade, ya know?" Jazz pointed out. "Even before this Earth business, the only time I saw him was when he was beatin' up on some poor mech. Which pretty much all Decepticreeps do."

"Well..." Sam thought. Having someone's life on his hands wasn't something he liked. "I think we should give him another chance at all this."

"What?!" Bumblebee started, surprised. "But he nearly killed you!"

"All the same," Sam replied, "I can't just let someone die. Megatron was an exception, but I'm not doing it again. At any rate... When Barricade was attacking me, I saw something in his optics.. It was like some small part of him didn't really want to be there, fighting. Or at least not as a Decepticon."

"You think he could be an Autobot?!" Ratchet snorted. "Even I doubt that."

"I'm just saying he should be given another chance." Sam pointed out. Optimus nodded.

"Alright, then. Barricade will remain our prisoner for know. Sam, you're in charge of him."

"But sir-" Bumblebee protested. Sam turned and eyed Bumblebee.

"You can come with me if you want to make sure I'm safe." Sam looked at Bumblebee. "Bumblebee.. You know it too. No matter what a person has done, there's always room for change."

Bumblebee sighed and subsided, nodding. He knew.

A/N: I know Barricade fought with a mace in the movie, but using a mace is a veryyy bad idea when outnumbered. I figured he'd do the smart thing and use his long-range weapons.


	2. Captive

A/N: I know the previous chapter was cut into small sections. I apologise for that. First story and all ; I'll try to cut down on the habit. Oh, and if I use human expressions like "rolled his eyes" that means that a Transformer is just databursting the impression of rolling his/her eyes.

Chapter 2: Captive

Barricade had been pacing around his cell for a while. His defeat at the hands of just two Autobots had been humiliating, and he had actually let the one who had claimed to be the squishy- What was his name again?- Ladiesman217, then.

And after he had pummeled the mech to stasis, he'd been met with a furious Bumblebee. He'd never seen the damned Autobot that mad before. It wasn't hard for him to figure out _why_ the mech was angry- His friend was hurt, after all- The bit that was infuriating him was that he had _let_ the Autobot attack him. Oh, he'd tried to defend himself with his mace, but the onslaught had been merciless, and that something in the mech's optics had caused him to hold himself back.

Apparently, some small part of him from 'before the War' still existed. He would have to rid himself of that as soon as possible.

Barricade's thinking was abruptly cut off by the sound of the cell door opening. Turning to face the door, he glared when he saw who was coming in: The Autobot who had claimed to be the squishy, as well as Bumblebee. "What do you want?" he growled. "Come to offline me? I assure you I will NOT make it easy on you."

"Actually," Sam answered, "We just wanted to talk."

"Your yellow friend over there certainly doesn't seem to want to talk," Barricade pointed out. Indeed, Bumblebee was glaring at Barricade with undisguised hatred.

Sam turned, looked at Bumblebee's face and smoothly gave him a punch to the side of his head. Bumblebee winced.

"Ow! What was that for?" Bumblebee asked, glaring.

"You promised you'd at least _try_ to like him, remember?" Sam stared hard at Bumblebee.

"Uh- Of course I remember!" Bumblebee tried hard to look like his promise had _not_, in fact, slipped his mind.

Sam just shook his head and turned back to Barricade, who was watching in half amusement and half disgust. "You should have shot and deactivated him when he punched you!" Barricade growled, as if aggravated that such good could exist in the world. Both Bumblebee and Sam turned to stare at him until he began to feel uncomfortable.

"We're _friends_, Barricade. We wouldn't hurt each other. Unlike the Decepticons, we don't have to worry about a comrade turning their back on you and betraying you. We work not just as a team, but as friends, too. That's w-"

"Cut the scrap," Barricade interrupted. "Just tell me what you want from me and then get out, because I'm not giving it to you."

"What would be the point in telling you, then?" Sam asked, amused. "Like I said, we only came here to talk. Ironhide and Bee here wanted offline you, but the rest of us- Besides Jazz, he's neutral- wanted to keep you alive. Probably for different reasons. Ratchet probably wanted to study your armour type..." At this, Barricade winced.

"He is NOT touching my armour!" He growled, and blasted a hole in the floor with his cannon for good measure. The instant Bumblebee saw his hand transform, he stepped in front of Sam and charged his cannon.

"Relax, Bee, he was just putting emphasis." Sam laughed, somehow amused that Barricade had blasted a crater in the floor. When he was still human, he would've been scared out of his wits, but as a mech the crater was a relatively small one and probably wouldn't do that much damage. Turning serious, Sam continued, "As for myself, I believed you should get a second chance. I believe some part of you doesn't want to fight."

At this Barricade snorted. "Yeah, right." He scoffed, glaring at the mech for ever daring to presume such a thing. "And how is it that _Jazz_ is alive? He was torn in half!

Sam winced- he hadn't meant to let that slip. "Nevermind that," he said quickly. "Anyway, admit it, Barricade. You know what I'm talking about." Sam replied flatly. Barricade didn't answer; he didn't need to. He knew it himself. "Now, for what I was actually here for."

"I knew you were up to something," Barricade muttered, and was ignored by both Sam and Bumblebee.

Sam went up to Barricade and put a hand to his chest, concentrating- an instant later, however, his hand was knocked away by Barricade. "What the slag are you trying to do?!" he glared.

Sam sighed in some exasperation. "I'm supposed to repair you, idiot," he replied. "Hold still." He put his hand to Barricade's chest and once again concentrated, feeling the power of Primus' Spark travelling through him and into the injured Decepticon. How the 'Con was still functioning with 80% overall damage was beyond him- Bumblebee had really done a number on the mech.

As the glow brightened, Barricade looked on in something akin to astonishment as his dents and rips gradually began to mend themselves. When the healing was done- With the extent of Barricade's damage it took an hour and a half- Sam collapsed, exhausted. Without thinking, Barricade caught him, then abruptly dropped him again when he realised what he had done. Bumblebee glared at the confused 'Con and helped Sam up.

"Who are you?" Barricade stared in a mix of fascination and some disgust- How had he come to let a 'Bot repair him? The idea was disgusting.

Sam grinned. "Didn't I tell you already? You first called me Ladiesman217, but my actual name is Sam. You can call me that if you want, ladiesman217 is a rather long name, no?"

"And uncreative, too," Barricade muttered.

"It was a typo!" Sam defended. "I didn't mean to name myself that!"

"Sam, if you can name me just one person that believes that terrible lie of yours, then do so," Bumblebee laughed. Sam just databurst a 'rolling my eyes' impression to Bumblebee.

At this point, Barricade was sick and tired of it all, and decided to do what he loved doing- Pretending to be someone's friend, and then betraying them. Certainly the reaction of Bumblebee and Sam would be very much amusing to watch. Thinking this, he let out a forced chuckle.

At this, both Sam and Bumblebee glanced flatly at him. "That doesn't fool us, 'Cade, we know you like tricking people." Sam said mildly. Bumblebee nodded. Barricade groaned- His captives just _had_ to have an abnormally high emotional quotient*. Just his luck.

"Get out now." Barricade grumbled. "I need to recharge."

Sam shrugged and left the cell, followed closely by Bumblebee, who locked the door behind him.

---

"So," Bumblebee spoke in a nonchalant tone, "What are you going to tell Mikaela? I doubt she'd be very happy about you becoming a mech and all, since you're her boyfriend."

"Wh- Shit!" Sam cursed. He'd forgotten completely. "She's going to be pissed! What should I say? Bee, help mee!"

Bumblebee rolled his optics, laughing at his friend's antics. "Relax, we'll tell her together, okay?" He smiled up at his charge. "In the meantime, can you project a hologram?"

"Um- no. Primus didn't tell me anything about that." Sam muttered, confused. Indeed, he hadn't thought once of hologram projection.

Bumblebee laughed. "That's because, like fighting, it needs practice." Growing more serious, he added, "Which brings me to a question- How did you fight so well against Barricade? No way Primus programmed those moves into you, and besides, I've never seen that style of Cybertronian martial arts."

Sam grinned, somewhat embarrassed. "Well, it wasn't _Cybertronian_ martial arts, per se..." he muttered. "As a human I studied a bit of martial arts as well, and I had to be good at throwing since Miles insisted I do all the throwing at the carnivals... And if I missed, he'd make me eat carrots. _Carrots,_ Bee!" He shuddered.

Bumblebee blinked in confusion. "I was under the impression that carrots were good for human health."

"Well, I don't like it." Sam grumbled. "Least I don't have to eat carrots now."

Laughing, Bumblebee muttered, "There will probably be a Cybertronian equivalent..." Louder, he said, "Back to the point- I'm going to databurst the basics of holographic projection to you, and you can try it out. Alright?"

"Fine..." Sam muttered, shuttering his optics as information was transferred to him. "...I see."

Turning into car mode, Sam concentrated on projecting a hologram of his human self. Just for a second, a hologram flickered to life, and then died again. Bumblebee laughed. "Don't worry, I did worse on my first try."

Sam just grumbled. "It's like trying to roll my tongue, or flex my ears..." At Bumblebee's confused look, Sam elaborated, "Not all humans can do that. It's something people are born with."

"You weren't born Cybertronian," Bumblebee pointed out. "Now try again."

---

What felt like days later, but was really only about two hours, Sam finally mastered hologram projection, although it couldn't go three feet from his body and it wasn't solid. Bumblebee had assured him that he would 'get better with time'. At that point, they set off to fetch Mikaela back from school, since it was about the projected time.

As they drove, Sam thought about his situation. It was true that the government could cover up for him, but Miles was his best friend. He'd know something was up. "Hey, Bee," he commed. "I think we should tell Miles as well."

"He wouldn't believe us unless we transformed." Bumblebee commed back.

"That's what we'll have to do, then," Sam replied. "Besides, I can't just leave Miles in the dark."

"We'll have to go to the headquarters, then. I believe everyone else is out trying to send a transmission to the galaxy you mentioned. The headquarters should be perfect as proof, and it's in a relatively secluded place at any rate. We can't risk anyone else seeing us."

"Alright."

At this point, they had reached the school, and both Sam and Bumblebee pulled into the parking lot to wait for Miles and Mikaela. An instant later, both of them popped out of school together, talking.

"Hey, Bee," she greeted as she saw the Camaro. Miles shook his head; he still couldn't understand why Mikaela and Sam treated their car like a living being. He'd pretty much decided that it was because the car had been what had technically brought them together, but why _Bee_?

"Hello, Mikaela," Bumblebee greeted.

"Wait a minute, Bee, where's Sam?" Mikaela asked, as she noticed the driver was Bumblebee's hologram instead of Sam.

"Next to me," Bumblebee answered. Both Miles and Mikaela turned their heads to look at the gleaming silver-and-black racecar of an unknown brand sitting next to Bumblebee. Bending down and looking through the window, Mikaela blinked.

"Sam? How did you get this ride?" Mikaela asked, confused. Miles was still staring in shock behind her.

Sam laughed. "Get in. I'll explain when we get there. You too, Miles."

Without a word, Mikaela got in, followed by Miles, who felt about the leather seats as though to ascertain that it was real. Sam had to resist the temptation to laugh- the contact was _ticklish_.

"We're off," Sam muttered as they pulled out of the lot and onto the road. Miles frowned.

"Where're you taking us, man?" Miles asked. "You know when I have to be home by, else Dad will have my throat."

"I know." Sam answered, tensely. "This won't take too long. But please don't ask me any questions until we get there, I'm still trying to figure out how to tell you this."

"What?" Miles blinked, confused. "Hey, man, you're not going to break up with Mikaela for me, are ya? You're my best buddy an' all, but I don't like you quite like _that.._"

"_What?!_" Sam yelled, car swerving slightly. "That's not it at all!"

"Phew." Miles sat back, relieved. "Not sure how I would've handled that."

Inwardly, Sam wondered. If Miles could barely handle a situation like that, untrue though it was, was it wise to tell him about the Autobots? Oh, well- It was far too late to change his mind. _Enough of that!_ Sam chided himself. _It doesn't matter what you think is going to happen, because they're going to find out anyway and worrying about their reactions isn't going to change things one bit. _Calming a little, Sam drove on.

When they reached the headquarters- And after Sam had deactivated the cloaking mechanism, despite much worry from Mikaela- Sam told the two of them to get out of the car.

"Sam? What's going on? Why are you showing Miles this?" Mikaela asked, confused. Miles was staring at the Autobot base, twitching slightly. The thing was _huge_.

"There's something I have to tell the both of you." Sam admitted. "But first, I need to explain to Miles about what happened in Mission City, so... here goes..."

Sam explained to Miles the reason the building was here, as well as how he had helped the Autobots to find the Allspark and defeat Megatron. He explained the meaning of the Autobot symbol on Bumblebee's wheel, as well as what a Decepticon symbol looked like, although he described it as "it looks like the Autobot symbol, but it's... spiky."

Mikaela rolled her eyes at Sam's explanation, and bent down, drawing the Decepticon symbol in the dirt. "It looks like that." she explained. "Now what is it you want to tell us, Sam?"

"Wait, wait," Miles laughed nervously. "This is a pretty big joke you're playing on me. How long have you guys been planning this? Right after the Mission City problem with the terrorists?"

Sam rolled his eyes. Or his hologram did, anyway. "Miles, that was a government cover-up."

"Fine, then prove it. Make this... Bumblebee transform." Miles retorted, staring sarcastically at the Camaro.

Sam sighed. "Bumblebee?"

The sound of a transformation ensued, followed closely by a scream and a "HOLY SHIT!"

It took a while to calm Miles down again, but he was relatively accepting on the situation once he did calm down. And once he finished screaming about bumblebees all secretly having the power to transform into cars and then giant robots... At which point Sam had to explain Bumblebee was just a name.

When he did calm down, Sam sighed somewhat. "And now... What I brought the two of you out here for." he paused, hoping someone would say something so that he could stall a little. No one did. Sighing again, he released his control of the hologram.

"HOLY SHIT!" Miles screamed- _again_- while Mikaela just flat out screamed. She'd known about holograms, but... "I'VE BEEN DATING A HOLOGRAM?!"

Bumblebee couldn't help but laugh as Sam hurriedly switched his hologram back on. "That's not it!" Sam yelled, flailing his arms as though to emphasize his point. "It's just- will you just QUIET DOWN AND LISTEN?!"

That quieted them, mostly because they had never heard Sam lose his temper before. And partly because now that Sam was a giant robot, he could shout _very loudly_. "Thank you," Sam said, exhaling. "I'm not a hologram. I was human."

"Was?" Mikaela questioned skeptically. "What about now?"

"Yeah, well... You know how I was going to bring Jazz back to life?" Sam asked.

"Jazz is still alive." Miles pointed out. "I listen to it at least once a week."

Sam resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. Mikaela sighed and turned to Miles. "Jazz is a giant robot, too. He got ripped in half by Megatron, the Decepticon leader. Sam had residue Allspark energy in him, so he was going to try to revive Jazz."

"...Okaay." Miles only understood about half of what she said, but at least it made some sense, now.

"So what happened, Sam?" Mikaela asked, curiously.

"Well... There wasn't enough residual energy, so Primus- that's the Cybertronian's god- decided to give me some of his. But, well... The energy would have killed a normal human so I had to be turned Cybertronian first, and I kind of... accepted."

"You WHAT?!" Mikaela yelled. "Not that I object to Jazz's revival, but what does this do to our relationship?!"

"Well... you can go back to jocks with big arms?" Sam muttered sheepishly. Mikaela glared, then sighed.

"I'd rather date Miles than Trent again." She muttered.

"I accept!" Miles said cheerfully.

"What?! But that wasn't an actual proposal!"

"A proposal's a proposal." Miles grinned and Mikaela sighed. At least he was better than Trent. She just hoped Trent wouldn't mention her breaking up with Sam, she'd have to get Ratchet to throw one of his wrenches at him if that were to happen.

"You seem less upset than I thought you would be," Sam said, mildly. At this, Mikaela turned.

"You're not upset, either." She pointed out. "You know as well as I do that we're not 'the ones' for each other. Something was missing from all that."

"True." Sam muttered.

"Hey Sam! Can we see your robot mode?" Miles grinned. "You looked cool as a car, but I wanna see what you look like as a robot!"

---

After Mikaela and Miles met with Optimus and the other 'bots to talk about Sam's transformation, they left with Jazz. Sam didn't doubt that Jazz and Miles would get along well, but he was rather worried about Miles. He never was good at keeping a secret. He did, however, trust Miles to know how important this particular secret was.

"Hey, Bee..." Sam started, then stopped again.

"What is it, Sam?" Bumblebee asked, concerned. Sam sighed, shaking his head.

"Nevermind. Let's go see Barricade, I'll bring some of Ratchet's high-grade energon with me." Sam muttered.

"You want to get _drunk_? With _Barricade_?" Bumblebee asked incredulously.

"Of course not! Ratchet says he put something in some of his high-grade so that we don't get drunk. He uses those to energise his weakened patients without making them drunk. I'm sure he won't mind us taking three cubes, he has plenty."

"But Sam! You know Ratchet."

"I'll comm him if you're that worried..."

_"Sam to Ratchet."_

_"Ratchet here, is someone injured?"_

_"No, but can I borrow some of your high-grade?"_

_"No."_

_"But-"_

_"NO."_

_"Ratchet, I'm making your job a LOT easier with my healing. You could at least give me some high-grade."_

_"You humans call in favours way too fast, you know that? We usually wait a couple of vorns before calling in a favour."_

_"Yeah, well, I was human just a day ago, and we only live seventy years at average."_

_"Whatever. Energon's in the third cabinet from the left."_

_"Thanks."_

"Alright, Bee, I got his permission." Sam said, cheerfully. "Let's go get that energon!"'

"...I don't think I want to know how you did that." Bumblebee muttered, but grinned at Sam. The two grabbed the energon cubes from the medbay and proceeded down to Barricade's cell.

---

"Hey 'Cade," Sam said cheerfully and he unlocked the cell and walked in. "I brought some high grade."

Abruptly, he found claws pointing straight at his face. "Call me that again and I will _not_ hesitate to offline you, regardless of the circumstances."

"Oh come on, 'Cade," Sam scoffed. "You barely have enough strength to move, much less hit me. Ratchet made sure of that. Now, do you want the high-grade or not?"

"...Fine." Barricade grumbled, taking the cube from Sam. "Might I ask why you want to get me drunk? For information?"

"This energon won't make you drunk." Bumblebee walked in carrying the remaining two energon cubes. "Sam's idea, not mine." he added, when the 'Con stared at him.

Sam shrugged. "It's been a long day, I'm sure everyone needs some energon." Saying this, he grabbed a cube from Bumblebee and proceeded to take a couple of sips from it. Barricade simply grunted in thanks and downed the cube in one gulp.

"...Wow." Sam stared at the 'Con. "I knew you were lacking energon."

Barricade growled. "Shut up. What did you want?"

"Just to talk." This time Bumblebee spoke up. "Before the war, what was your job?"

"..." The Decepticon was silent. "Why do you want to know?"

Sam shrugged. "We want to know more about you. Why did you decide to become a Decepticon?"

Barricade hesistated. How much should he tell them? He didn't trust them, not at all, but he felt compelled to answer. Somehow, the concern they had for him had affected him... He sighed. "I was a blacksmith."

At Sam's confused look, he elaborated, "Cybertronian blacksmiths create modifications and weapons for other Cybertronians to use."

"Oh." Sam was silent.

Bumblebee spoke up. "Why, then, did you join the Decepticon cause?"

Barricade didn't want to tell them, but some part of him did, and before he could stop himself, the words came out. "To protect my family."

Why had he said that?! He hadn't wanted to. That part of himself was long gone. _Dead!_ he thought, frowning. Sam and Bumblebee were looking at him, staring with something unreadable in their eyes. Barricade frowned. "Get out."

Without saying a word, Sam and Bumblebee both walked out of the cell, locking it behind them.

"...I didn't expect that." Bumblebee said, softly.

"Neither did I, but I can at least say I told you so." Sam smiled softly at the mech. "There's far more to him than meets the eye... And, I suspect, you as well."

At this, Bumblebee laughed, punching Sam lightly on the shoulder. "You're just saying that."

"Maybe I am." Sam grinned. "After all, I already know almost everything about you."

"You wish!"

A/N: Nothing too interesting happened in this chapter, but next chapter will, promise. More of Barricade's past gets revealed and... I'd tell you more, but that'll spoil it! xP The next chapter will feature Sam realising he forgot to tell his parents. Though he won't actually be telling them for a while.


	3. Revelation

A/N: I update too fast. To think I was only at Chapter One-and-a-half when I uploaded it, and I have Chapter Two _and_ three ready on the same day. That's one-and-a-half chapters a day, people. =P I won't be able to update so quickly later on, of course.

Chapter Three: Revelation

Barricade growled softly. Why had he _done_ that?! For a moment he wondered if he should do as Frenzy did when he got frustrated- Namely, bang his head against the wall. Probably not. The noise would make the Autobots come running. And that was something that he definitely did _not_ need at the moment.

He supposed it had been a moment of stupidity. He'd told them because they had been kind, concerned. It was practically an automatic reaction. Barricade wondered for a moment if that had been intentional- Were the two psychologists that could wring information out of any mech? It would be a whole new kind of torture. Not that it was true, Autobots wouldn't even think about manipulating anyone. The slaggers had probably just treated him that way because it was natural to them. Damn. He was usually able to escape such treatment since the only time met any mech that was kind was on the battlefield, and no mech was kind on the battlefield. Merciful maybe, but not kind.

Barricade sighed. He was getting the Cybertronian version of a headache. Muttering under his breath, the 'Con slipped into recharge.

---

"What do you make of all that, Bee?" Sam asked as he stretched and walked with Bumblebee to their respective recharge berths. Bumblebee didn't have to ask; he knew what Sam was talking about.

"He was telling the truth." Bumblebee answered, and something akin to sadness flickered in his optics. "What do you think happened to him that could have changed him that much?"

Sam's optics hardened. "Megatron." he answered simply, and Bumblebee understood. Megatron was not a kind mech. Being with him, even for a little while, was terrifying. His aura of command and mixed with a putrid evil. Barricade had lived with that every day, and Bumblebee was only surprised that he had not been completely corrupted. In silence, the two mechs walked to the recharge berths and lay down.

"...Bumblebee?" Sam realised something.

"Yes, Sam?" Bumblebee replied sleepily.

"...How do I enter a recharge cycle again?" Sam asked, sheepishly. Bumblebee laughed and databurst the information over before going into recharge.

Sam smiled. "Thanks, Bee."

---

Starscream paced around, thinking. The new mech, who was supposedly the squishy who had destroyed Megatron, had the power to revive dead mechs. Could that be done for Megatron, as well? Or did Laserbeak have a glitch in his systems? It was doubtful; Autobots would not reformat any mech's memory, even if it would give them an advantage. On the other hand, the idea that a mech would have the power to revive someone who had been _dead_ was just as likely. In fact, if what Laserbeak had said was right, it had been Primus who had revived Jazz through the squishy, who had then somehow been turned into a mech.

As if the fact that he had only Soundwave, Thundercracker and Skywarp as allies with him right now was not enough, the Autobots had the location of their allies, revived a dead mech and gained a new ally. So to speak. Six versus three were not good odds, even with the Decepticon's firepower. They had a chance with Barricade, but the Seeker was not idiot enough to free the 'Con. He wouldn't be idiot enough to revive Megatron, either, but it was his only chance at survival- the Decepticons were far outnumbered on this planet and only Megatron knew the location of the rest of the 'Cons. He may have managed to find three by himself, but that was pure luck, it was unlikely he would find anyone else, and if he were to send a transmission it was unlikely they would respond. He would have to be there physically, or else they would not submit.

So his self-preservation chip had forced him to turn to the last plausible option- Reviving Megatron. Processors whirred as Starscream went through all the possibilities, then stopped. He had an idea. A somewhat maniacal glint appeared in his eye and he called the remaining 'Cons into the room.

---

Sam awoke from recharge, stretching. His internal clock told him he'd been in recharge for eight full hours. Getting up, he found Bumblebee messing around with something on one of the drawers.

"Bumblebee!" Sam stood up, walking over to him. "What are you doing? Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"Sam!" Bumblebee started and stuffed something inside the drawer before slamming it shut and locking it. "I-I wasn't doing anything!"

"Riight." Sam scoffed. He could see that Bumblebee didn't want to tell him, though, so he decided to just leave it at that. "Why didn't you wake me up, then? I know a normal recharge cycle doesn't take eight hours."

"I figured the healing thing you did took a lot out of you." Bumblebee explained.

"I didn't feel tired, though." Sam pointed out.

"Your systems will run at full efficiency almost all of the time." Bumblebee said. "As long as you have enough energy, that is. Once you get to below 20% power, your systems will warn you and begin to function with lower system efficiency. The more energy used, the longer the recharge cycle. Eight hours probably means your systems were at 21%. Normal mechs go into the recharge cycle with 60% of their energy, so you were, in fact, _very_ tired." When Sam stared at him in surprise, Bumblebee mumbled, "I had to endure a twenty hour long lecture when I used up all my energy, once... Ratchet doesn't like those kinds of things."

Sam chuckled. He knew how angry Ratchet could get. "Guess I'm lucky I didn't wear myself out, huh?"

"I doubt you'd do the same as me and continue fighting even with a giant sign flashing in your optics telling you about your dropping energy level," Bumblebee laughed. Sam shook his head.

"Let's go see 'Cade. He might be ready to tell us what happened, then." Sam frowned. He knew whatever it was that had caused the drastic change in Barricade's personality, it had been bad. He just hoped it wasn't as bad as he thought it was... Sighing, Sam opened the door and walked out, followed closely by Bumblebee, who was also thinking along the same lines.

When they reached the cell, they found that Barricade was still recharging. "He's been in recharge for over eight hours?" Sam asked, worried. "What does that mean?"

"It means he's had less that ten percent of his energy left when he went into recharge." Bumblebee said, grimly. "He probably hasn't recharged for at least a week, if not two. But he'll be fine now that he's getting some rest."

"I see." Sam nodded and sat down in a corner of the cell, waiting for Barricade to wake up. He smiled when Bumblebee sat next to him.

"Y'know..." Sam grinned. "'Cade looks kinda cute when he's in recharge."

At this, Barricade's eyes immediately snapped open. "What?!" he roared.

Sam didn't cringe. "Hi, 'Cade," He grinned cheerfully. "How was your recharge cycle?"

"Rudely interrupted by a certain black and silver mech." Barricade grumbled. "What did you want now?"

"What happened?" Bumblebee asked. "We need to know."

Barricade knew what he was talking about, but he would at least make it difficult for the two mechs. "What are you talking about? And you don't _need_ to know anything."

"You know." Sam answered. "And no, we don't, but we do."

"...That made no sense, fleshling."

"I'm not a human now, remember?"

"You still act like one. Are you logic processors functioning?"

"'Cade, stop stalling and just tell us." Bumblebee interrupted. Sam nodded.

"Yeah! Please?" he added.

Barricade grumbled, but he sighed. He knew the two mechs would never give him any rest until he told them, so why not get it over with now? "It was a psychological trick." Barricade said. He activated his hologram projectors.

---  
_  
"Lord Megatron! How may I serve you?" Barricade knelt at the Decepticon leader's feet, feeling somewhat disgusted with himself as he did so. His Spark was inclined to the Autobot side, but he had seen joining the Decepticons as the only feasible option to protect his family, since they were neutrals. Autobots didn't attack neutrals, but Decepticons did. And the Autobots were not always successful in protecting the civilian neutrals._

_"Ah, Barricade." Megatron's optics gleamed. "You joined the Decepticons to protect your family, did you not?"_

_Barricade frowned. How had Megatron found that out? He didn't dwell on it long, however. Megatron had spies everywhere, of course he'd find out. "Y-Yes, sir."_

_"A foolish notion," Megatron dismissed, and Barricade inwardly fumed, although he didn't say anything. "Let's make the situation more amusing, shall we?" That gleam again. He didn't trust it- Megatron was planning something._

_"What do you suggest, Lord?" Barricade asked. Megatron may have found him out, but he wasn't about to risk his family by saying something stupid._

_"Just this. You will duel with me. If I win, your family dies. If I lose, you may leave the Decepticons for the Autobots, and your family will not be touched." Megatron smiled, seemingly amused. Barricade's Spark went cold. There was no way he could win against the Decepticon leader! And yet if he lost, his family was doomed. Barricade shuddered in some despair._

_"And if I refuse?" Barricade asked, standing. He was beyond formalities at this point._

_"Then," Megatron was grinning. That was not a good sign. "Your family will be reformatted into mindless Decepticon soldiers."_

_Barricade growled. He didn't have a choice, then. "When?"_

_"Now." Megatron narrowed his eyes and fired the cannon he had been discreetly charging. Barricade only just managed to dodge- As it was, his shoulder was singed._

_"Slag!" he cursed as he continued to barely dodge Megatron's blasts. Megatron was just playing with him, he knew. he had to come up with a plan. And fast._

_Feinting to the left, he abruptly pulled himself right as he fired his own plasma cannon at Megatron's right. Megatron wasn't fooled by the feint, but he did pull himself a little to the right to dodge Barricade's second blast, which was far more visible and brighter. The cannon blast got his shoulder._

_"Very good," Megatron said approvingly, as though it were just a survey. He didn't seem as though he felt any pain at all. Barricade despaired._

_He feinted again, this time to the right, and did a flip forward and toward the left as Megatron fired. Barely dodging, he managed to roll under the next one and come up close enough to swing at Megatron with his mace._

_Megatron caught his mace in his hand and smirked at the shocked 'Con. "Try harder next time." Saying this, he lifted the mech by his mace and flung him into the wall. "Looks like your family's dead." He walked away as though pleased with himself._

_---_

"In short, I failed my family." Barricade said bitterly. "Megatron put me in charge of the mechs that killed my family, saying that 'I was very good at fighting and should be made a commander'. I didn't notice at the time that it was a setup- All I could feel was anger toward the mechs. I couldn't kill them, but I could hurt them. Punish them. And put them in dangerous situations. The entire time was like 'Con training- He was turning me into one of them."

By the end of his 'speech', Barricade had regained his impassive tone. Bumblebee and Sam were staring at him. "...What?!" Barricade glared defensively. Sam walked forward, abruptly hugged Barricade- who didn't move- and went back to his place.

"Don't do that again." Barricade glared. "Now, anything else you wanted?"

"Well... Nah, it's nothing. We were planning to tell you more about ourselves, but I don't think anything can beat that..." Sam gave a nervous laugh.

"No. Tell me." Barricade insisted. "I... want to know about you, as well."

"Really?" Sam asked, surprised. "I haven't lived for as long as you have, so I don't have much to say. But I haven't had exactly a great life, either. It's not war-torn, but it wasn't good. For me, anyway. You see, even as a kid- Sparkling, I suppose- My only friend was Miles. No one else wanted to befriend me. I thought it was because of my attitude, so I tried to change, but later I learned that Trent had been sabotaging me. He wasn't a good guy, even in pre-school. He spread rumours about me. I still don't know why he dislikes me so much..." Sam frowned. "So, what about you, Bee?"

"Trent is a total glitch." Bumblebee growled in irritation. "I... had a pretty protected life. I was born just before the War, so I was one of the last Sparklings. I was overprotected- I couldn't even get out of my room. That's pretty much why I joined the Autobots. That... and..." Bumblebee hesitated. This was obviously a painful memory.

"You don't have to say it," Sam said, putting a hand on his friends' shoulder. Barricade made a noise of agreement, but Bumblebee shook his head.

"Both of you could talk about a painful part of his life. I can, too." Bumblebee frowned. "I was... One of my caretakers forcibly tried to interface with me. Humans would call it rape." Bumblebee's voice shook at this point. Apparently, vorns of war still hadn't shaken off all of the trauma.

Sam's optics softened in pain and sympathy for his friend. Even Barricade felt some sympathy, though it wasn't much. He was still a 'Con, after all. A 'Con with Autobot... acquaintances. Barricade couldn't call them his friends.

"Whoever did that is one sick mech." Barricade growled, and Sam nodded in agreement.

"What happened to him?" Sam asked.

Bumblebee frowned. "He was destroyed by Ironhide. He interrupted the mech when he was trying to interface, and killed him when he saw what was going on."

"Good." Sam frowned.

"I have a call." Bumblebee frowned. "It's from Mikaela."

_"Hello?"_

_"Bumblebee? That you?"  
_  
_"Yes. Did you need something, Mikaela?"_

_"Transfer me to Sam, will you? I don't know his number yet."_

"Mikaela wants to speak to you, Sam. I'm going to transfer the call." Bumblebee spoke. Sam nodded, then something struck him.

"Bee, you're a phone operator now?" Sam laughed. Bumblebee mumbled something that sounded like "Shut up" and transferred the call.

_"Sam? Is that you?"_

_"Yeah, what is it?"_

_"Sam, you didn't tell you parents about what happened, did you?"_

_"...Slag!"_

_"Thought so. I covered for you, so you have about a week before you have to explain to your parents about the transformation thing."_

_"Thanks, Mikaela, but couldn't you tell them what happened?"_

_"No way! Hey, I gotta go now. Bye, Sam."_

_"Bye."_

"What is it?" Bumblebee asked curiously when he saw Sam's expression.

"I forgot to tell my parents." Sam groaned. "They weren't directly involved with this whole thing, so I kinda just... forgot... Mikaela covered for me. I have a week."

"A week, huh?" Bumblebee mused. "That's enough."

The three mechs sat in comfortable silence for a while, before Bumblebee spoke up. "I think the others are back. We should go."

Sam nodded and got up. "See ya later, 'Cade," he grinned as they exited.

Barricade smiled back. Maybe he did have people he could call friends now, after all.

---

"So how did it go?" Bumblebee asked Optimus. His hunch had been right- The rest of the mechs had returned.

Optimus smiled and answered. "It was successful. They received the transmission."

"We even got a response!" Jazz cut in cheerfully. "They'll be here in just three days!"

"Three days before the twins arrive is nowhere near long enough," Ratchet grumbled. Ironhide nodded in agreement, whlist Jazz just laughed.

"At least they're coming." Sam grinned. "Who knows how many Decepticons Starscream could have gathered by now!"

"And that's my cue!" Skywarp warped down and grabbed Sam, warping back before anyone could react.

"Ratchet!" Optimus ordered. "Scan for Skywarp! Everyone else, out of the base NOW! We need to get to Sam!"

The team nodded, transforming and racing out of the base.

---

Barricade frowned. Something was going on outside. He couldn't see, but he heard something like Skywarp's voice and Optimus yelling at Ratchet to scan for the Seeker.

Barricade wasn't sure what he felt. He was sure that the 'Cons weren't here for a rescue mission- He was pretty sure they had taken Sam, since he hadn't heard Sam's voice at all. He wanted to help the mech, but he didn't want to help an Autobot. His 'Con 'training' had been pretty deeply ingrained.

Jazz was revived, and Barricade was pretty sure that the squishy suddenly becoming a Cybertronian had something to do with that. And if that were the case, he knew exactly why Starscream would want the mech. He just hoped Sam wouldn't get hurt.

Then again, perhaps if both Sam and Bumblebee died, the part of him that was good would die, too. He wasn't sure any more. For the first time in vorns, he had been shown friendship. And yet an even longer time of being a 'Con told him not to like them.

Deeply confused by the conflictions in his Spark, Barricade settled down to recharge. Maybe he'd be thinking clearer after a short rest...

---

Barricade was then very abruptly and very harshly by Ironhide. An extremely pissed off Ironhide. "Where they take him?!" Ironhide growled, cannons aimed right at the 'Con's Spark.

"What?! Who?!" Barricade answered irritably.

"Sam! Where did you take him?!" Ironhide shook Barricade.

At this point, Bumblebee ran into the room. "Stop it, Ironhide!" he yelled, trying to dislodge the Ironhide from Barricade. Ironhide didn't budge.

"He's with the 'Cons! He told them where our base was!" Ironhide snarled.

"No, he didn't!" Bumblebee shouted desperately. "His communications were disabled!"

"He could've-" Ironhide was interrupted.

"I didn't do it." The police car said softly. "It was probably Laserbeak. He may have been following me at the time of capture, although I can't be sure."

Slowly, Ironhide released Barricade. Not because he believed him, but because the tone Barricade had used had had... worry in it. "Do you at least know where the Decepticon base is?"

"I'm not sure. I know the general location, but not the one."

"Tell us all you know. We can scan for the base after."

---

Sam groaned as he woke up. What happened? The last thing he could remember was someone suddenly appear in front of him, grab him, then... nothing.

Trying to get up, he found that he could not- he had been chained down to a table, and apparently there was someone next to him. He could feel an arm next to his. Turning, he screamed when he saw the dead face of Megatron stare back at him. Hole in his chest and all.

"Ugh," Sam muttered, shaking his head. Why was he tied down next to Megatron?

"I see you are awake." A voice said from nearby. Sam stiffened immediately. Starscream.

"What do you want, Starscream?" Sam growled, trying to keep his voice indifferent but not being able to help the small bit of panic that he knew was in his voice.

"It's simple, really." Starscream loomed over him. "I want you to revive Megatron."

"_What?!_" Sam yelled, twisting up and trying to get out of his chains. "I'll never do that!"

"It's okay," Starscream shrugged, grinning menacingly. "You don't have to. It was Primus' power that revived your friend Jazz, was it not?"

"How do you know all this?!" Sam demanded, glaring. "And do you really think that _Primus_, of all people, will help you?"

"Laserbeak's a good spy, isn't he?" Starscream smirked. "I don't, of course. But Primus' Spark is bonded to Unicron's. They are brothers. With this invention of mine, we can tap straight into Unicron's power." As he said this, Starscream held up a odd, spherical machine. Sam's heart grew cold with fear- nothing he could say or do would help, he knew.

Starscream plunged the machine into his chest, and Sam screamed and black, raw energy coursed through his body.

A/N: Never again am I writing this much in a day. x_x I changed Barricade's past, obviously, and Bee's too. Possibly Sam's. I hope I didn't make it too angst-ish.

Scientific-ish explanation of Starscream's machine: Primus' Spark is made of positive energy. Unicron's is negative. Remember the whole 'opposites attract' thing? Starscream sends a strong current of positive energy into Primus' Spark, and it looks for that small bit of negative energy that comes from Primus' and Unicron's bond. When it finds it, it travels through to bond right to Unicron's Spark. That bit of energy will pull Unicron's Spark slightly toward the bond, and Primus' Spark will do the rest, pulling quite a bit of Sparkenergy from Unicron. And, well, you know the rest. Starscream has a TON of energy he can use to revive Megatron.

He doesn't use it to build his own army because the residue Allspark energy in Sam isn't strong enough to tell Unicron's chaotic energy to create life.


	4. Megatron Awakened

Anonymous: Yeah, but I couldn't think of any other way that Barricade wouldn't be able to just step on and squish Sam. At least he's deterred now that Sam's a mech. XD Thanks.

Chapter Four: Megatron Awakened

Starscream plunged the machine into his chest, and Sam screamed and black, raw energy coursed through his body. The energy was nowhere similar to the type Primus had used to revive Jazz- This was dark, chaotic, and far more painful. Primus' energy may have felt like lightning, but this seemed to make him feel as though he was in burning lava, and somehow at the same time freezing at a temperature close to absolute zero. It felt like the atoms that made his armour were being torn apart and mutated- in short, it was more painful than torture ever could be. Sam had to wonder why he hadn't offlined yet. Or fallen into stasis.

Sam lost track of time after a while. All he could feel was pain and terror. For a moment, he wondered if this was what Bumblebee had felt like when the S-7 agents had tortured and experimented on him. Just for a moment. Then a new wave of pain washed over him.

When the pain finally ebbed, Sam looked to see that he had broken his chains somehow. Or, more likely, Unicron's energy had broken them. Struggling, he managed to get up, and was abruptly pushed off the table and onto the floor.

"Megatron!" he hissed. He didn't have to look. He knew that Megatron was alive again.

"Ah, Megatron." Starscream's voice. "How good to see you again."

"Starscream." Yep. That was Megatron's voice. "I see you've found a way to revive me. That is good. I conquered the Pit a week ago and it was getting a little boring in there. Give me a report on the state of the Decepticons."

"Of course." Starscream's voice faded as he left to get the datapad he had the report on.

"And just who are you?" Megatron got up and stared at the mech on the floor, weak with pain.

Sam gritted his teeth. "Your killer. And I'll kill you again if I have to." Saying this, he swung out at Megatron, somehow getting the strength to stand up. Instantly, his systems flashed a warning- "System energy levels at 17%. Power conservation on."

He felt the pain vanish. Well, that was one good thing. Then again, that was probably because his servers had turned the pain receivers off. He had to think up a plan and get out, fast.

Megatron wasn't fazed by the weak swing, batting it away as if it were a fly. "Samuel James Witwicky. I see you've changed."

"I have. And if you don't back up I'll- I'll use Primus' power to smite you!" Sam thought fast. _Seriously, Primus, you gonna help me or not?_

"You have the power of Primus in you?" Shock. Megatron did a quick scan and found Allspark energy, as well as something... else.

When Sam saw Megatron scanning, he immediately got up and ran for his life, running through random doors and passageways, hoping that he would find the exit somehow. The fact that there were exit signs all over the place helped- This was obviously an old building. It had probably been a mall once.

Finally, he reached the door with the exit sign over it. He stopped for a moment- Something was holding him back. He had a strange feeling he should go into the door on his left. Frowning, he turned and found the word 'Barricade' on the door, written in Cybertronian. Good thing Ratchet had insisted he learn Cybertronian.

Slowly, Sam opened the door and walked in, surveying the room. He wasn't surprised to see that the room was dark and dull. And yet, Sam had a strange feeling...

Walking over to a drawer, he pulled the drawer out completely, and found what he was looking for when a holo-projector popped out. He put the drawer back and activated it.

It was Barricade's family.

Smiling, Sam shook his head. No matter what the 'Con said or did, he still missed his family.

Looking up, he found a second door. With growing suspicion, he opened the door- and found that it led outside.

The first door was fake, then. A trap. That explained why Megatron hadn't chased after him. If he hadn't known Barricade so well, he'd probably have fallen straight into it. Sam grinned. Barricade wasn't even here, and he had saved his life.

Walking out and recognising the place, he quickly headed in the direction of the Autobot base.

---

"We have to find him!" Bumblebee glared at Optimus, who was sitting calmly.

"Bumblebee, we can't search the entire world for Sam, and Barricade only knows the general direction. You have to wait until our scanners pick up a signal-" As though waiting for just such a word, the monitor beeped and a red dot appeared. That was Sam's energy signature. Bumblebee looked at the screen, then stared flatly at Optimus, who sighed.

"Alright, then. Everyone, transform and head towards the signal. Bumblebee, will Barricade be coming?" Optimus asked. Bumblebee was surprised- he hadn't even thought of asking the 'Con. He may have been better, but he was still more 'Con than 'Bot...

"No." Bumblebee answered. "I don't think he's quite ready yet. I can connect him to my optics, though, so he can see what's going on."

Optimus nodded. "Do so." Bumblebee did, and they left.

---

"Sam!" Bumblebee raced toward the tired mech, embracing him. "What happened? What did Skywarp do to you?"

"He didn't do anything." Sam grumbled tiredly, leaning on his friend for support. "It was Starscream. He used some device on me and it revived Megatron." At this point, with the whole thing over, he fell into stasis.

"WHAT?!" all of the mechs yelled. "Megatron's back?!"

"Whatever Starscream did, it nearly killed Sam." Ratchet frowned. "Bumblebee, load him up on Optimus. I need to get him into the medbay now."

The mechs rushed toward the base. Sam's Sparkenergy was still depleting at an alarming rate.

---

"Is he going to be all right?" Bumblebee asked worriedly. Ratchet glared.

"Bumblebee, I've already told you the last 27 times you asked- I DON'T KNOW!" he snapped. Then, seeing the look on the Camaro's face, he sighed. "Look, I know the two of you were close. I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises. Sam'd be healing himself, but some dark energy is blocking that, and causing damage to his systems at the same time- Like a virus. And viruses are hard to purge."

Bumblebee sighed. "I know. It's just... I'm worried."

"Everyone is." Ratchet spoke gently, but firmly. "You aren't the only one to care for the kid."

Bumblebee nodded, and went to go talk to Barricade about the whole thing. Maybe he'd have an idea. If Sam had negative energy flowing through him, there had to be some way to disperse it.

Opening the door to the cell, Bumblebee stepped in and greeted Barricade, who grunted in response. "Did you want something?"

"Why is it that every single time one of us comes in, you think we want something?" Bumblebee asked, laughing. Barricade snorted.

"Because you usually do." he answered. "So what did you want?"

Bumblebee sighed. "Do you know of a way to help Sam? Negative energy is negating his ability to heal, and Starscream's device did a number on his systems. I'm surprised he's still alive right now."

"..." Barricade was silent. "Negative energy, you say? You just need a strong positive electrical current near the source of the energy*. It should work."

Bumblebee nodded. "Thank you." Leaving the cell, he ran back to the medbay. "Ratchet!" he called. "Barricade has an idea! He says to put a strong positive current near the source."

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Ratchet muttered to himself. "Alright then Bumblebee, use your stingers on his spark."

"What?!" Bumblebee started in shock. "That could kill him!"

"It's the strongest source of electricity we have at the moment." Ratchet glared impatiently. "Or would you rather the energy destroy him, slowly and painfully? Now either you can use your stingers to either save him or grant him a quick de-"

"Fine!" Bumblebee interrupted, not wanting to think of Sam dying. Without giving himself a chance to hesitate, he turned his stingers on and full power and blasted Sam's Spark with it.

All at once, dark lightning appeared on Sam's prone form and raced toward the electricity Bumblebee was producing, twirling and constricting around the strong current Bumblebee was producing.

"And now?" Bumblebee concentrated, trying to keep the current flowing, unsure of what would happen if he let it die.

"Release it." Ratchet commanded and Bumblebee did so. The leftover energy swirled for a moment, as though unsure of what it was doing, then abruptly dispersed in a burst of dark light. Bumblebee and Ratchet were thrown back.

"Ugh..." Bumblebee groaned. "What the slag was that?!"

"Just a discharge." Ratchet answered, going over to check on Sam.

"JUST a discharge?" Bumblebee repeated in disbelief, walking over. "That was practically an explosion!"

Ratchet shrugged, finishing his scans. "Sam's fine now." he reported. "Everything else should be fixed in just a few minutes, since his self repair is being augmented."

As he said this, Sam twitched slightly, coming online. "What happened?" he asked, dazed.

"You went in to stasis," Bumblebee answered, concern coating his voice. "How are you feeling now?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Sam said, gingerly sitting up. "Everything seems to be working alr-"

"Good, so DON'T YOU EVER GIVE ME A SCARE LIKE THAT AGAIN!" Bumblebee glared. Sam, surprised, cowered back a little.

"It's okay, Bee, I'm fine now." Sam insisted, standing up. "See?"

"Even if you were, you won't be for long." A new voice asserted itself, and all three mechs turned to the doorway to find Barricade.

"'Cade?!" Bumblebee stared in surprise at the 'Con. "Slag, I didn't lock the door!"

Barricade laughed a nasty laugh. "That's right. With just a little bit of trickery you let down you guard enough to forget to lock the door." he smirked.

"I don't believe this," Ratchet glared at Barricade. "You owe Sam your life, you pitiful 'Con. And you!" He spun around to face Bumblebee. "How could you forget to lock the door!"

"It was an accident!" Bumblebee defended himself.

"I grow weary of this." Barricade snarled, activating his cannons.

"Oh?" Sam stepped forward, arms crossed. "Shoot me, then. If everything you've done was trickery, then why don't you just shoot me?"

"Sam, what are you-" Ratchet started, but was stopped by Bumblebee. Confused, Ratchet looked at the yellow mech, who shook his head slightly. Ratchet knew that if Sam had been in any danger, Bumblebee would never have let him step up, so he had to content himself with standing down and watching.

"What are you talking about?" Barricade seemed confused, even somewhat hesitant. Sam smiled softly.

"'Cade. If you meant everything you said, and it was all really trickery on your part, then you'll shoot me. Look, I'll even make it easy on you." Sam took another step forward and opened his spark chamber. Barricade took a step back.

"Why are you being so suicidal?" Barricade sputtered, very unsure of himself now. Sam just gave him a smile, and Barricade frowned. The slagger was baiting him. Glaring in anger, Barricade charged his cannons and fired.

---

"Starscream. You let him escape." Megatron's voice was slow and deliberate.

"N-no, Sir. You see- I had a hunch that if I allowed him to escape, we'd get a new Allspark!" Starscream frantically said, thinking up an excuse. Megatron just stared at him while he fidgeted- Why had he come up with such a _stupid_ excuse?

"Prove it." Megatron stated, and Starscream shivered.

"W-well..." Starscream hoped a miracle would come and save him. Perhaps it would. Activating the base computer, he scanned the entire Earth for any traces of Allspark energy.

Instantly, the computer went haywire. It beeped and flashed, sparking and shuddering. The monitor showed very high Allspark activity right in the Earth's core, and yet it wasn't quite Allspark energy. The scientist in Starscream surveyed the possibilities and found only one. The dark energy from Unicron must have been removed from the Witwicky child somehow, and gone into the core of the Earth. Essentially, Earth was now a dark version of the Allspark.

On a hunch, Starscream cut one of the wires from the computer's mainframe, touching it to a nearby electrical device that had been left by the humans- Something called an 'iPod'. Instantly a spark jumped from the wire to the device and it transformed into a miniature, Frenzy-like creature, standing at attention.

"The dark Allspark," Starscream said proudly, as though that had been his intention all along. "Rather than creating a Spark that can think and feel, it creates a mindless soldier that will follow orders to the end. Furthermore, anything that can detect it's energy can work as a medium for the Allspark, and therefore no direct contact with the core is required."

"Really now?" Megatron grinned. "Bot, take three steps forward and offline yourself."

Without hesitating, the iPod-robot took three steps forward, fell off the table, and blasted itself with a rocket launcher. Megatron chucked. "Good job, Starscream. Now let us proceed with our original plan..."

A/N: Yes, Bumblebee also happens to have the stingers he has in Animated. As for Sam's car form, think Blurr from Animated, with a black and white colour scheme. And yeah, short chapter, I know... I was sick. =/

*See _Scientific-ish Explanation of Starscream's Machine, _Chap 3


	5. Allspark

TicTac: Starscream didn't want to revive Megatron, but he didn't really have a choice. He had Soundwave, Thundercracker and Skywarp with him. The Autobots have six mechs plus Barricade. It was only a matter of time before they found him and killed him, and for Starscream I believe his survival comes first and foremost. Rest assured now that he has a real chance to grasp at power he _will_ scheme against Megatron.

A/N: I've realised that many of the chapters have broken line breaks. As in they don't show up. Which will probably make the reading very hard, so I've fixed it.

Chapter Five: Allspark

Barricade's shot travelled past Sam and struck the floor behind him. Sam and Bumblebee were smiling, while Ratchet looked on in some confusion.

"I couldn't do it." Barricade said, emotionlessly. Why hadn't he been able to shoot? At the last minute, he'd moved his hand so that he'd miss. He was a _Decepticon_. He was _supposed_ to kill. So why hadn't he been able to kill just one mech? An Autobot, no less?

"Because we're your friends, 'Cade," Sam answered his unspoken question, smiling at him. Obviously the police car wasn't very familiar with the concept of friends. Alliances, yes. Partnerships, yes. But apparently he didn't have any friends.

"Friends..." Barricade repeated. "I never had any friends, even back on Cybertron. My only friends were my family. It's part of the reason I was so desperate to protect them." Barricade's face carried a look of such sadness that even Ratchet had to sympathise with him.

"You have some now." Bumblebee spoke up, a grin evident in his voice. Barricade rarely got emotional, if ever- This was the first time he'd seen the 'Con so emotionally vulnerable.

Barricade looked up and _smiled._ He actually smiled. Ratchet saw the look and immediately went into stasis, while Bumblebee and Sam stared in some shock at the 'Con. "What?" Barricade grumbled, seeing their looks. "Haven't you ever seen a mech smile before?"

"Yes, but not you." Bumblebee laughed. Barricade grumbled something under his breath. At that moment, Ironhide burst in.

"New Cybertronian energy has been detecte- What happened here?!" Ironhide cried out, seeing the still smoking charred spot on the floor and a Ratchet that had fallen into stasis. And that Barricade still had his cannons out. Immediately assuming the worst, Ironhide growled. "What did you do to Ratchet, you slagging piece of scrap?!" he activated his cannons as he yelled.

"Calm down, Ironhide!" Sam glared. "Barricade didn't do anything! Ratchet just... Come to think of it, what happened to Ratchet?" Walking over, Sam prodded the medic, who jerked up.

"He... He smiled!" Ratchet cried out. "Barricade actually _smiled_!"

Ironhide stared at the medic in disbelief. "What? Did you hit your head or something?"

"No, he did smile." Bumblebee stared at Ironhide. "Now please put away your cannons."

"Fine..." Ironhide grumbled, deactivating his cannons. "What was I- Right. Cybertronian energy was detected at the Decepticon base."

"Those are just the Decepticons, aren't they?" Sam asked in confusion.

"The Decepticons have masked their signals," Ironhide explained. "I can't sense Barricade, and he's standing right next to m- How did he get out of his cell?!"

"Another time," Sam said quickly. "So it's a Cybertronian, but not a Decepticon? A new one?"

"Yes," Ironhide answered.

"But only the Allspark can do that..." Barricade murmured. then his optics widened. "Ironhide! Scan for Allspark energy now!"

"Who are you to order me around?!" Ironhide glared.

"Just do it!" Ratchet snapped as he began to realise what Barricade had. Bumblebee and Sam looked between the two mechs in confusion.

Ironhide ran for the base's computer, followed closely by the rest of the mechs. When they reached, Optimus and Jazz were waiting. "Hey man, what took you so lo-" Jazz began and was abruptly cut of as Ironhide blew past him. Why he was being so urgent was realised moments later when a very worried Ratchet followed by Bumblebee, Sam and Barricade chased after him. It was never good when Ratchet was worrying. Quickly, Optimus and Jazz followed.

"Computer, scan for Allspark energy." Ironhide said as his fingers flew across the keyboard expertly. He wasn't skilled with computers, but all soldiers had to know how to do a basic scan.

The same thing happened as with the Decepticon computer: The monitor glowed and flashed brightly, with sparks emnating from the computer, before a _blip_ was heard and very powerful Allspark energy was detected at the Earth's core.

"Impossible." Optimus muttered as he stared at the screen. "This can't be."

"It's possible." Ironhide answered. "This computer's never wrong."

"It could be!" Jazz protested. "What could possibly-"

"The negative energy you were talking about, Bumblebee." Barricade interrupted as he thought quickly. "Did it disperse?"

"Well, yeah." Bumblebee said uncertainly. Catching on, Ratchet realised what Barricade and Starscream had- The energy had dispersed and made the Earth an Allspark. Quickly, he explained.

"How can this energy be harnessed, Barricade?" Optimus asked calmly, wisely choosing not to question Barricade's presence. Now was not the time.

Barricade frowned in thought. "Electricity." he answered. "And maybe if you were connected to the core somehow... But how could you connect to it."

"Wireless?" Sam joked, and Ratchet started.

"That's it, 'Cade!" Ratchet exclaimed. Everyone, including Barricade, stared at the medic, wondering when he;d begun calling Barricade 'Cade. "Wireless- So to speak." Ratchet continued, oblivious to the reactions of the various mechs. "If I were to do this..." Opening a panel, he cut open a wire and held it to a radio that Mikaela had brought with her and left at the base. A spark jumped from the wire to the radio, and the radio transformed into a somewhat human-sized mech.

"Wow." Sam stared. "Now all we need is for it to start singing," he joked. Immediately, the new mech began singing.

"That's one of Cybertron's oldest songs," Optimus said, startled. "How does that guy know it?"

"Probably because of this Allspark." Ratchet muttered. "Which is made from dark energy... which possibly means... Hey, new guy, jump!" Immediately, the mech jumped high, flipped, and landed again.

"The new Allspark creates mindless drones," Optimus realised. Sam frowned in sadness and sympathy for the mech.

"What?! No way! How could anything so... evil, exist?" Saying this, he reached out and petted the mech sadly- and the mech started.

"Where am I?! What's going on?!" The radio-mech glared. "What did you do to me?! Why was I being controlled just now?!"

"You can remember that?" Ratchet questioned. The mech glared again.

"Of course! I was self-aware the entire time! So are you going to answer my questions or not?"

"You're in the Autobot base on Earth, Megatron was revived and killed again, we didn't do anything, we just created you from the dark Allspark, which is why you were being controlled... We think." Ratchet answered.

Optimus frowned. "What is your name, little one?"

"Name's Voidhammer. Remember it." The little mech snapped. Barricade started.

"Isn't Voidhammer the name of one of the great Autobot leaders?" Barricade asked. "He died vorns ago."

"Obviously he just has the same name!" Jazz laughed. "Jeez, you-"

"I AM Voidhammer!" The little mech glared. "The one you speak of. Why did you pull me out of the Matrix?!"

Realisation hit the mechs like a sack of bricks Or Autobot-sized bricks, anyway. "This Dark Allspark doesn't just create drones," Sam said, in horror. "It puts the sparks of dead mechs in a body, and makes it so that they are aware of everything they do- But they'll only do what people tell them to!" the rest of the mechs nodded grimly. Even Barricade, who was a seasoned Decepticon warrior, softened though he was now, recoiled at the idea.

"At least you have a cure, then." Voidhammer spoke up. Everyone looked at him in confusion, and he sighed. "When that mech touched me," here Voidhammer indicated Sam, "I had my free will again. Somehow he was able to cure me."

Ratchet's optics lit up in realisation. "Of course! The remnants of the Allspark energy, combined with the light energy of Primus, should be able to dispell the power of the Dark Allspark."

"I'm just calling it Dullspark for short." Sam muttered. "Dark Allspark is a long and overly dramatic name."

Bumblebee laughed. "You shorten the name of everything, Sam," he grinned. Sam stuck his glossa out at the yellow mech.

Attention was diverted to the computer as another _blip_ was heard. "New Cybertronian activity detected." The computer reported. "Suspicous activity detected at local electronic stores."

"Three guesses for who's doing this." Jazz muttered.

"Megatron." Optimus frowned, transforming. "Let's go."

"I'm coming too," Voidhammer spoke up, climbing into the back of Optimus' truck. Optimus' headlight flashed as though nodding.

"Very well. Barricade?" Optimus asked.

"I'm coming, too." the ex-Con answered. "But I am _not_ an Autobot. Consider me a neutral that wants to give Megatron some payback."

Sam laughed, opening his side door and giving the police car a light hit. "Yeah, right," he chuckled.

---

"Load the electronics onto number one," Megatron ordered as the remaining fleshbags in the area scuttered away. Starscream nodded, picking up a large amount of computers and dumped it onto a truck that they had previously transformed.

"Autobots-approaching." Soundwave reported.

"Engage them and delay their arrival." Megatron ordered.

"Affirmative." Soundwave confirmed, taking off in the direction of the Autobots. Megatron focused back on Starscream.

"Hurry it up, fool!" Megatron glared. "The Autobots will be arriving soon!" Starscream, grumbling, complied.

---

The seven Autobots (and one neutral) raced toward the coordinates the computer had given them, driving quickly so as to get to the store in time. From the looks of the place, they hadn't- The majority of the buildings had been destroyed, and several squished humans bodies were littered about. Sam shuddered.

"Decepticon in sight!" Ironhide reported, quickly transforming and skidding to a stop. Activating his cannons, he began blasting at the 'Con, who didn't so much as flinch.

"It's Soundwave." Barricade growled. As if to confirm this, two Casseticons popped out of Soundwave's chest. Laserbeak and Ravage.

"Ironhide, Ratchet, think you can handle them?" Optimus asked, knowing the answer. Transforming, Ratchet nodded. Ironhide was still blasting away at the 'Cons and didn't appear to have heard what Optimus had said. With a slight sigh, he went on ahead, followed closely by Bumblebee, Barricade, Sam and Jazz.

When they did find Megatron, it was almost over. All of the hardware had been loaded onto 'Number One'. Not that any of the Autobots would let Megatron or Starscream get away with the prize.

"I'll take Megatron. Barricade, you're with me. Bumblebee, Sam, Jazz, go for Starscream." Optimus ordered.

"I see you've increased your forces." Megatron said, amused. "A traitor, a dead mech... And what's that my sensors are detecting in you? Got a drone for yourself? And here I thought you were an Autobot."

"I am no drone!" Voidhammer growled, leaping out of the trailer. "The name's Voidhammer."

"Ha! Stolen the name of one of the great Autobot leaders, have you? I thought you had more originality than that." Megatron smirked.

"I AM VOIDHAMMER!" Voidhammer yelled. Before he could say more, Barricade stopped him by tackling Megatron and swinging at him with his mace.

At the same moment, Sam was launching discs at Starscream, who was boredly flicking them away as though they were annoying flies. Jazz fought in his usual way, leaping about unpredictably but unfortunately not causing much damage to the F-22. Bumblebee was blasting at him unsuccessfully. Starscream's optics gleamed with amusement. "Had enough yet?" he smirked. "My turn."

With that said, Starscream transformed into his alt mode and shot a missile at Bumblebee, taking Jazz up with him as he went. Flying to incredible altitudes, he eventually dropped the mech, who impacted the ground with a loud crash. A crater could be seen on the floor. Flying back down, he found Sam, who was still attempting to blast transformed and kicked Sam into a recovering Jazz.

"When did he get this good?" Jazz groaned. Starscream smirked again.

"Well, apparently you gain the skills a Spark would have had if you absorb the Spark into yourself." Starscream answered with malicous cheerfulness. "I took in three Sparks, so I have the overall power of four Sparks now."

"Sparks are the hearts of Cybertronians! You can't just absorb them!" Sam said in horror. Starscream sighed in mock exasperation.

"I already have."

The three mechs renewed their attack on the Decepticon, who seemed bored. No matter what the mechs did, the most they were able to do was put a slight scratch on Starscream's armour, while they themselves got more injured and dented by the minute.

"We need some help." Sam frowned, desperately trying to get up. "There's no way we can beat Starscream like this."

"The truck!" Bumblebee exclaimed. "It's one of the drones. You could cure it."

Sam nodded, and gathering the last of his strength, sprinted for the truck. Starscream looked on in confusion- What on earth were the mechs talking about?

He got his answer when Sam touched the truck, who instantly dumped out his load and transformed. "Thank you, little one." the truck said emotionlessly, something odd glinting in his eyes. Sam frowned. Something was wrong.

Sam realised it in the nick of time, and jumped back just as a hand smashed down on the spot where he had been. "Too bad I was formerly a Decepticon before my death." The truck sneered, jumping forward and swiftly kicking Sam and knocking him onto the ground.

The three Autobots lay on the ground, too exhausted to move. They had been beaten. The last thing they heard was Starscream laughing maniacally, and then they slipped into stasis as Starscream repeatedly shot the three of them.

---

Optimus knew something was wrong the instant he threw the first punch at Megatron. Normally, the two faction leaders were evenly matched. A punch would meet a punch and neither would get an advantage.

However, this time Megatron punched back, and Optimus flew back into a building as though Unicron himself had punched him. Barricade had already been swatted away as though we was a mere fly. Both mechs looked to the Decepticon leader in apprehension. What had occurred to render the mech this powerful?

Megatron laughed. It was a cold laugh, chilling even Barricade to his Spark. "Confused, Prime?" Completely ignoring Barricade, the 'Con leader advanced on Optimus. Barricade growled when he saw this. Did Megatron really think he was that meagre a threat?

"You have gotten stronger." Optimus stated. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Megatron had indeed gotten stronger.

"Glad you noticed." Megatron seemed amused again. He obviously thought himself invincible and Optimus knew he might be right. How could this have happened?

Megatron, unlike Starscream, did not bother to explain the source of his newfound power. Instead, he blasted Optimus with his cannons once. Twice. Three times. Weakened already from just the first punch, Optimus could do little to stop the blasts and fell into stasis as shot after shot rammed into his body.

Barricade had, by this point, managed to get up, although his systems screamed at him to do the smart thing and remain down. Ignoring the various warnings flashing, he got up and launched himself at Megatron once again.

"An Autobot now, are you?" Megatron sneered. "Pity. I thought you were smarter than that." Saying this, he grabbed Barricade by the lag and slammed him into the ground, a large crater forming when he did this. Barricade tried to get up, but he couldn't move.

Megatron shot at the police car and, with the damage being too high, Barricade fell into stasis.

---

Ironhide and Ratchet glanced at each other as Optimus left. They had to be quick. "You take Laserbeak and Ravage." Ironhide ordered. "I'll take on Soundwave."

It result wasn't surprising. Ratchet got his circuits ripped out and torn apart by a very agile Laserbeak that hovered around him, and Ravage did the same to his lower half. It didn't take very long before the damage knocked Ratchet out.

Ironhide had actually managed to hold his own for a while, mostly by quickly dodging the shots and punches. He was actually on the defensive- That didn't usually happen with Ironhide.

When he saw what happened to Ratchet, however, all he felt was rage as he attacked Soundwave with all he had. That was his undoing- Soundwave dodged his blows easily and, now that Ironhide wasn't trying to dodge, got in several punches. Ironhide was knocked back into a building with the final punch.

The last thing he heard was Soundwave ordering Laserbeak and Ravage back into his chest.

---

It was a good thing that the government were able to arrive at the 'scene of crime' before the police and local research groups. That would not have been good. As it was, several people were able to get in and snap pictures of the various Cybertronians.

Sam was the first to recover, since his self-repair was that much faster than that of the others. he awoke to find several agents working to repair Optimus and the other Autobots. However, a tow truck was pulling Barricade away.

"Hey, stop!" Sam shot up quickly, surprising the agents that were repairing him and knocking a few off their feet. Staring at him in confusion, Sam indicated in Barricade's direction. "He's not a Decepticon." Sam explained, as though the mechanics would understand him. When they stared at him in confusion, he sighed. "He's on our side!"

One of the mechanics frowned. "Our orders were to repair all those with the red symbol and send the ones with the purple symbol to be recycled."

"No!" Sam exclaimed frantically. "He's defected! ...Or something! Either way, he's not fighting for the... Purple guys any more!"

"You'll have to speak to Defense Secretary Keller about that." The mechanic shrugged, wondering if Sam's logic circuits were scrambled. Sam groaned under his breath.

"Where is he?" Sam asked moodily. He wasn't in the mood for delays.

"Right over there." The mechanic answered, pointing. Sam ran over to Keller.

"Kelle- I mean, Sir, Barricade's on our side! You need to stop the tow truck from scrapping him!" Sam quickly explained. The Secretary looked at the mech.

"And just who are you?" The human asked curtly. Sam groaned again in frustration.

"I'm Sam! Sam Witwicky! Optimus told you what happened to me, didn't he?"

A look of realisation appeared on his face, and the Secretary nodded, flipping open his cell and ordering the driver to drive back. Once he saw the Barricade was okay, Sam ran to find Bumblebee.

"Get out of the way." Sam shooed away the mechanics who were unsuccessfully trying to fix the yellow Camaro. The mechanics looked up, saw that he was one of their kind and would probably know better how to fix the damaged mech, and stepped aside. Sam knelt down and began healing his friend.

Sam was smart enough to realise that it would be a stupid thing to do if he were to heal them all completely. Bumblebee alone could take six full hours for that. He did, however, need to render each mech functional.

As he concentrated on Bumblebee, his thoughts wandered. He'd known Bumblebee for a long time now. It had been months since the battle at Mission City. Bumblebee was a friend, a comrade. And yet, he was something... else.

Sam looked down at the yellow mech as he slowly came to the realisation of what he felt for his friend. He had only known him for months, but the mech had been with him through thick and thin, and every moment that they shared he had enjoyed. As friends, they had been practically inseperable. Now, he realised why. He didn't just feel for the mech as a friend, but...

Sam had never been against homosexuality. He'd never really bothered about it, and he didn't hate people that were homosexual. However, he had never thought himself to be one. What else could he be feeling for the mech, however?

Sam decided to dwell on it later, as Bumblebee began to stir. Smiling, he nudged the mech lightly. "Welcome back," he grinned. "How are you feeling?"

"Like someone threw Megatron at me," he grumbled. "But otherwise, fine."

"Good." Sam grinned. Then, to the mechanics, he said, "Bumblebee will tell you what to do. Listen to him."

As they nodded, he sprinted off to do the same with Barricade, and Bumblebee, with his somewhat limited knowledge of Cybertronian anatomy, told the mechanics what to fix first. The mechanics themselves knew how to fix the pieces, thankfully. Bumblebee thought that they were probably the same mechanics who had worked on Megatron.

---

Eventually, all of the mechs were functional and the last fixes were being done by Ratchet and Sam. They made a good team: Ratchet could fix hardware and circuitry in minutes, which Sam could take hours to do, and Sam could fix tears and rips in the metal, which would take Ratchet hours to do. Each complimented the other.

So it wasn't very long before the team was functional and ready to go, including Barricade. Voidhammer had been knocked out when Optimus slammed into the building. Voidhammer had been behind him at the time and had been crushed. Thankfully, however, Ratchet and Sam were just able to save the mech's life. Any longer and Voidhammer's Spark would have been extinguished.

A debrief had occured shortly after, including Keller. They discussed how the Decepticons had acquired power, and how they would be able to stop them. The conclusion was obvious. The Autobots would not use the sparks from the Dullspark as Sam had dubbed it to make themselves more powerful. However, there was no way for the Autobots to defeat them at this rate- Even the most powerful of human weaponry was unlikely to defeat the monstrous Cybertronians. A nuclear bomb was far too risky- It could be turned on the humans with just a little bit of hacking.

In the end, there was no strategy. There didn't seem to be much hope left. It was unlikely that the Autobots would ever gain enough power to defeat the Decepticons. But something had to be done. The Autobots could not sit by and watch while the 'Cons took over the galaxy- But they weren't stupid enough to attack and get themselves killed, which would _ensure_ that the galaxy had absolutely no hope whatsoever.

The only question was, what on earth could they do against Decepticons who were getting more powerful by the second?

"I have an idea." Voidhammer spoke up solemnly. "It concerns an old Cybertronian legend, one that was barely remembered by any mechs even in my time. It was said that organics- Particularily sentient ones- could seriously boost a Cybertronian's power. All it needs is a touch from the Matrix to make the organic compatible to Cybertronians."

"Really? What are the chances that this is real?" Sam asked, interested.

"It's a Cybertronian legend, kid. Unlike human legends, Cybertronian ones are true 95% of the time. The legends states that, with the power of the Matrix, the brain waves of the organic can be made compatible with Cybertronian radiation and can bond with one Cybertronian. Somehow these waves work like a very powerful form of Energon, boosting the power of everything in the bonded mech." Voidhammer explained.

"And the cons of this is?" Optimus asked, warily. Most good things came with a price.

"First of all, the organic and the Cybertronian must have a similar will and they must want the same thing. Otherwise, if the confliction becomes too great, the bond could be temporarily ruptured and remove about 99% of a mech's energy levels." Voidhammer answered. "That is, of course, very dangerous in battle. Thankfully, the will doesn't have to be all that similar- Both of them just have to want to fight, or some similar motive. The second disadvantage is that the humans have to stay within one kilometer of their bonded, else the mech will not receive the power boost and will be slightly weaker than usual."

"That's dangerous." Optimus frowned. He didn't want to put the humans in danger.

"Danger isn't a problem." Defense Secretary Keller spoke up, grimly. "We will do anything to protect our planet."

Voidhammer looked at the human approvingly. "That's a good attitude to have. Two more thing. The first is that the bond can be removed once this is over, so we don't have to worry about what will happen when this is over. Second, Sam seems to have an oddly human physique compared to other Cybertronians, so he will most likely be able to bond with a Cybertronian. I have no idea how effective this will be, however." Voidhammer warned.

"The less humans we put in danger, the better." Optimus spoke up. "So I guess it's time for us to choose a partner. Autobots, r-"

Optimus was interrupted by Keller. "I may be old, but I'm still spry." Keller smiled. "I want to do my part for this planet. Will you allow me to bond with you, Optimus?"

"Of course, Defense Secretary Keller." Optimus answered, knowing no other answer would satisfy the human. Besides, the human was just as experienced as he was. He would be a good choice.

"Call me John." The Secretary of Defence answered, smiling slightly.

"It's a good chance to test if the legend is in the five percent that isn't real, too." Voidhammer pointed out. Jazz nudged the tiny mech with a foot, knocking him over.

"Don't jinx it," Jazz whispered despite the glare he was receiving from the small mech.

Slowly, Optimus opened his spark chamber to reveal the Matrix. He had removed it during the battle of Mission City, anticipating that the Allspark would be pushed into his chest, but he had replaced it soon after. Now, the time had come to use it.

Removing the Matrix from his chest, Optimus held it in front of him and concentrated. A surge of Spark energy travelled from Optimus' Spark into the Matrix, which glowed brighter and shot a beam of light at Keller. When the beam stopped, Keller was glowing.

"I believe you are supposed to touch the mech you want to bond with, now." Voidhammer prompted. Nodding, Keller walked forward and placed his hand on Optimus' foot. A bright flash followed, then the glow was gone. Optimus replaced the Matrix.

"Feel any different?" Jazz asked jokingly. He figured it wouldn't be a noticable change until the mech fired.

"Actually... Yes." Optimus answered, looking down at his hands in amazement. "I feel far more powerful, now. And... My spark feels oddly full."

Voidhammer grinned. "It worked, then. Your spark feels full because of the extra energy. You'll get used to it

"Then let's test it out." Keller said, walking toward the crater that Jazz had made when he fell. "I will permit you this once to shoot into one of the craters and destroy public property."

Optimus laughed, smiling at the man. "You might want to step back." Nodding, Keller took several steps back and Optimus charged his cannon and fired into the crater.

A resounding _boom_ was heard. When the smoke cleared, the crater had almost doubled in size.

"We have a real chance against Megatron now!" Jazz whooped.

Voidhammer frowned. "It will not be as easy as that." he said softly. "Megatron had an unlimited supply of power. Our power depends on how well our wills synchronise. He can still be more powerful than us.

"We need to find a way to dispell the negative energy from the Earth's core." Optimus realised. Then, he sighed. "All in due time, I suppose. First we need partners for all of our mechs."

---

Starscream quietly hacked into the mainframe of the base computer, linking it to the one he had in his room. Scanning for Allspark energy, he pulled out a wire and put it against his Spark.

"As if I'll remain with the limits Megatron imposed on me." Starscream muttered.

---

"Alright." Optimus said after he was done testing. "Sam's next. Sam, are you sure about this? It may not increase your power as much as it will your bonded, or both of your powers could be increased, but not that much- There are any number of possibilities."

"I'd rather less humans were hurt. I understand if no one wants to bond with me, however." Sam replied.

"We are all of the same mindset here. We do not want to involve the humans any more than necessary." Optimus reminded.

"Still." Sam replied, unconvinced. His choice, however, was obvious. The simple question was if the mech would accept it.

"Bumblebee, would you...?" Sam began.

"Of course!" Bumblebee quickly answered. "And no, I don't care if I don't get as powerful as Optimus." he quickly added when Sam opened his mouth. Frowning, Sam nodded.

Optimus stepped forward and did as he had before, and Sam reached forward to touch Bumblebee.

"How do you feel?" Optimus asked the both of them.

Both answered with a tinge of wonder in their voices. "Powerful." Sam suddenly frowned.

"I don't feel that full, though, Optimus." Sam mentioned.

Voidhammer blinked. "That shouldn't be." He ran a scan on Sam again. "Wait a minute... Did you know your Spark has two different energy signals?"

"Yeah," Sam answered, still confused. "It's part of Primus' Spark. I used to be human, but he turned me Cybertronian."

"Used to be human... That explains it..." Voidhammer muttered. Then, optics widening with shock and surprise as a realised something else, he screeched, "PRIMUS' SPARK?!"

"Long story." Sam said sheepishly. Voidhammer stared at him in shock.

"You are Sparkbonded with Primus?!" Voidhammer was still shocked. Sam stared at him in some confusion while the rest of the mechs burst into laughter.

"Sparkbonded means married." Voidhammer elaborated when he saw Sam's confused look. Sam's optics immediately widened.

"What?! NO! I'm pretty sure that's not the kind of bond we have! It was an accidental kind of thing!" Sam defended himself.

"Alright... Regardless," Voidhammer continued. "This means you can bond to a second mech... First, let's try out how powerful your bond is."

It turned out to be just as strong as Optimus' bond, and Sam now had to choose a second mech to bond with.

"'Cade?" Sam asked softly. "Would you?"

"I..." Barricade hesitated. "Why do you trust me? I could betray you by conflicting our wills and rendering you useless."

Sam stared at him in some sadness. "I trust you, Barricade," using the mech's full name to imply that he was dead serious.

"Then how do I know I can trust you?" Barricade said desperately.

"That's why it's called trust." Sam smiled at Barricade.

"I... okay." Barricade accepted, and Optimus stepped forward, bonding the two together.

"NOW I feel full," Sam joked, and it broke the remaining 'afterfight' tension. The mechs all laughed, and headed back to the base for some much needed recharge. The next day would be a long one.

---

"Alright, Sam. First and foremost, you will tell your parents what became of you today. The news of 'giant alien robots' has been spread all around the news by now, and the government wasn't able to cover up, this time." Optimus ordered. There had been a meeting once everyone had fully recharged, and now orders were being issued. "Barricade and Bumblebee, follow him. His parents might need some convincing. Everyone else needs to find a partner. Jazz, you say Miles, correct?" Jazz nodded. "I am reluctant to put a human child in danger, but it is Miles' choice. Ironhide will go to find Will, and Ratchet can come with me and Jazz to find Mikaela."

As the 'Bots seperated, Barricade grumbled. "I'm not one of his Autobots. He can't just order me around."

"His choice was logical and you know it." Sam grinned.

Barricade grumbled more but didn't argue.

As the mechs drove on towards the house were Sam's parents lived, Sam got increasingly nervous. "What if they hate me?" he fretted.

"Sam, you seem to be worrying about the same things that homosexuals seem to worry about when they want to come out of the closet." Bumblebee teased. "I've never really understood all that, though. We don't care about ridiculous things like gender on Cybertron. What really matters is what you feel in your Spark."

Sam didn't respond to the teasing or the second comment, instead driving on ahead. Bumblebee frowned but shrugged to himself, putting it down to Sam being nervous about his parent's reactions.

When they did reach, Sam parked himself outside the house, Bumblebee and Barricade following suit. "Mom! Dad! You there?" he called out.

"_Sam?!_" Two voices rang out, and the door of the house was slammed open as the two worried parents rushed out.

"Sam, wher- WHY IS THERE A POLICE CAR OVER THERE?!" Ron yelled. "Did you get yourself into trouble again?!"

"I can explain!" Sam said defensively. "And the police guy's a friend, okay?"

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Judy was tapping her foot and glaring at her son, bat in hand. Sam gulped.

"Yes... well... I have something to tell you." Sam muttered.

"Obviously!" Judy retorted. Sam flinched.

"Yes... well... You remember Mission City? How it was destroyed by a reported terrorist attack?"

"Yes." Judy wondered for a second where all this was going.

"And have you seen the news about giant robots?" Sam asked nervously.

"That crap?" Ron snorted. "No way it's true. Probably just the government trying to stir things up to hide some other operation they have going on."

"Er... That's not true, Dad." Sam mumbled. "I was there at Mission City... It was destroyed by the same robots that are being reported to have been seen some time ago."

"What are you talking about? Do you have a fever, son?" Ron walked forward and tried to place his palm on Sam's forehead, the latter immediately dodging.

"No!" Sam said quickly. "I was there! I met them! And I'm friends with them."

"Are you sure you're all right?" Judy frowned at her son. Sam sighed.

"Get in the car." When his parents gave him a look of confusion, he added, "Please. I'll explain when we get there."

Nodding, his parents got into the car. Ron felt around the interior. Sam squirmed; it tickled.

"Where did you get this car?" Ron asked suspicously. "I've never seen it before."

"It's tied in to my explanation." Sam replied tersely, hologram keeping a firm grip on the wheel. His parents fell silent.

_"Might I ask where we are going?" _Barricade commed.

_"I'd like to know, too," _Bumblebee added.

_"Same as before."_ Sam commed back. _"Autobot base."_

It felt like hours before Sam reached the base, when it was probably only about one. When they did finally reach, his parents got out, looking confused as they took in their surroundings. "Where is this?" Ron questioned.

Sam sighed and deactivated the cloaking of the base, as he had before.

"WHAT THE HECK?!" Ron yelled, jumping back. Judy followed suit, then held her bat out threateningly as though trying to scare off the huge building. Of course, it didn't work.

Quickly, Sam explained the story of the Autobots and Decepticons, and what was going on now. The faces of his parents became more shocked by the minute.

"Where is your proof of this?!" Ron demanded. "...Other than the invisible building thing!"

"Yeah, well... you know how I said my car was Bumblebee?" Sam said awkwardly. "Well..."

On cue, Bumblebee transformed into his robot form. Ron gaped in shock at the humongous robot, while Judy advanced threateningly on Bumblebee with her bat. "Did you hurt my son?!" she demanded fiercely. Backing away, Bumblebee quickly shook his head, speechless. The human female was scary.

"He's an Autobot, mom. He's on our side." Sam spoke up. "Barricade is the police car. He looks a little scary since he's an ex-Decepticon, so be prepared."

Barrricade transformed and this time Judy stomped over to _him_, glaring. "You attacked him." she seethed, gripped her bat even tighter. Barricade stood several steps back as the human advanced on him.

_"Sam, help!"_ Barricade commed desperately. Sam laughed.

_"Nah, consider this payback."_

_"...Slagger."_

At this point Judy had reached Barricade, and proceeded to whack him several times with her bat. Barricade winced and took several large steps back again as Sam quickly called to his mother to stop.

"That's not everything." he said quietly. "You know how I said I had to revive Jazz?" His parents nodded.

"Yeah, well... I kinda... had to become one of them to do it." he said, very softly.

Ron frowned. "Could you repeat that, son? I couldn't hear you." Judy nodded in agreement- She hadn't been able to hear him either, and her ears were sharp. Sam repeated it, louder this time, then let his hologram flicker out and transformed.

A/N: Whoa, long chapter... Took me a full day to write this. Well, it makes up for the fact that I probably won't be able to update as much later on. Lots of new things in this chapter, too... This story's developing a life of it's own. I never planned this. xD


	6. Truth

Chapter Six: Truth

Sam repeated it, louder this time, then let his hologram flicker out and transformed. The result was... an interesting one, to say in the least.

"Who are you and what did you do with my son?!" Judy screamed, her face actually turning red in anger rather than shock. She was holding her bat out in front of her defensively. Apparently, Barricade mused, this particular human dealt with stress violently.

Ron's reaction was almost the complete opposite. Rather than stepping forward angrily and threatening Sam, he leapt backward and tried to dig himself a shelter under the sand. Obviously, he wasn't very successful, and only succeeded in spraying his wife in sand... Causing her to turn her anger on him instead.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Judy screeched, her glare practically burning through Ron. Ron visibly shuddered.

"Our son just turned into a _giant robot!_" Ron screamed back. "What do you expect me to do?!"

"_It_ is not our son!" Judy yelled at her husband, making him flinch. She could be very scary at times. "Our son _disappeared! _Then the car he drove us here in transformed!"

"Mom, Dad..." Sam interrupted, watching the exchange with some amusement and sadness. After all, his own parents were treating him as though he were something to be feared... Or, in his mother's case, beaten senseless with her bat. "It _is _me."

"No, it isn't!" Sam briefly wondered how his mother hadn't torn her own voice box out yet. He wasn't quite able to finish the thought as Judy hurled her bat at his optic, and Sam had to turn slightly to avoid damage. His body might be tougher now, but his optics were _fragile_.

"Mom! Listen to me!" Sam raised his voice a little. It wasn't that loud, but there was enough emotion in it that Judy stopped waving her arms threateningly at the 'bot and Ron turned around to look at his son. "It. Is. Me. Sam. Your son."

"Prove it!" Judy snapped, calming down despite her words. There was something about his voice that was calming her... Like maybe he was actually telling the truth? Judy quickly shoved that thought back where it came from.

"I hate carrots. When you tried to feed me carrots as a child, I nearly stabbed you in the eye with one. I also nearly got electrocuted when I tried to climb 'the pole', which I didn't realise had high voltage wires at the top." Sam paused, then continued. "When Mikaela was in my room, you started talking to me about how it was okay for me to masturbate. You also insist on putting 'bling' on Mojo, which you should stop, by the way. Mojo is a guy dog. Give the poor guy a break."

His parents were staring at him, mouth open. Sam hoped this meant they believed him.

"Are you sure I can't put bling on Mojo anymore?" His mother asked in a very disappointed tone. All the tension bled away at her statement, and Sam laughed.

"No, Mom, please don't." Sam was grinning at his mother, however, and while she wasn't smiling Sam knew she'd accepted the situation. "Well... Normally I'd invite you to meet the other Autobots, but they're out right now. I'll drive you back home, all right?"

His parents nodded and he transformed back, recreating his hologram as they climbed in.

---

Ironhide grumbled, mostly to himself but partly to the human now sitting inside of him. He wasn't very happy that they had to bond with humans just to get up the the power level of the Decepticons, but at least there was a human he could ask that was actually sensible and didn't want to make him blow them up with his cannons.

Although he was wondering if he'd made the right choice right now.

William Lennox, or Will, sat in Ironhide, had briefly wondered about how Ironhide had gotten his alternate mode in the first place. When he asked Ironhide about it, Ironhide had mentioned something about a 'tiny human female asking me if I was the tooth fairy'... Which had, predictably, caused Will to burst into laughter. Causing Ironhide to sulk in silence, which meant he wouldn't be getting the reason he was there in the first place anytime soon.

"Come on, Ironhide," Will tried again, wondering if Ironhide would respond. "Just tell me why I'm here willya?"

Ironhide was silent. Will sighed, leaning back. There was nothing he could do until Ironhide decided to let him in on the situation... Why hadn't he insisted on knowing when Ironhide had come to fetch him?

Will sat in silence, accepting the situation for a total of ten seconds before asking Ironhide again.

At this point, Ironhide asked in an exasperated tone, "How many times are you going to ask me?"

"As many times as required." Will answered, keeping a straight face but unable to keep the smug tone out of his voice.

Ironhide growled softly and began explaining why Will was coming with him.

"And do I get a choice in this?" Will asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No." Will could practically feel the glare in Ironhide's voice. "I refuse to bond with any other human. They are _irritating._"

Will chuckled, knowing that would be Ironhide's answer.

---

The good part, Optimus mused, was that they hadn't really had to do much to get Mikaela or Miles' attention. The three of them attracted enough attention with their forms.

The bad news was that, obvious as they were, they hadn't just attracted the attention of their two human friends. Practically every single student in the school had crowded around the two vehicles, and a little less around Jazz. He was a Porsche, after all. It was just that fire engines and S&Rs were much more rare to see in a school.

At any rate, whatever their reason was, the fact was that it had attracted the attention of Mikaela and Miles. Both of them entered Optimus upon the urging of his hologram, and the three Autobots plus two humans began to pull out of the school with a little difficulty. Optimus didn't want to hurt the humans, so he was moving practically inch by inch.

"So why are we here, Optimus?" Mikaela asked, once they had finally gotten out of the school.

Optimus sighed and explained the situation, ending with "I did not want to involve human children, but I thought that you should choose."

Mikaela and Miles didn't really take very long to decide. Their parents didn't, either, not after some cleverly placed holograms that convinced their parents that their children were in great danger.

---

Mikaela, Miles and Will had headed back to their homes after they had bonded to their respective partners, claiming that they were exhausted. Sam, who had arrived at the base shortly after the bonding, concluded that they had just needed time to reflect on what they now where... Although Miles was probably celebrating that he didn't have to go to school anymore.

The Autobots were now discussing partly about what to do with Barricade, and partly about the upcoming arrival of the Autobots. Optimus had decided not to let them come down to Earth immediately, and instead told them to land on the moon. This was partly because Wheeljack had said he was testing a new invention, and partly because he wanted the new Autobots to learn a little about Earth's culture and languages. It wouldn't really do for someone like Sunstreaker to think a clock was insulting his paintcoat (and unfortunately, the ticks from clocks do occasionally resemble Cybertronian words or insults, depending on the gears inside.)

So the main problem was Barricade. Obviously, it wouldn't do to put Barricade inside his cell again. Optimus refused to put someone who had helped them fight inside a cell. However, Barricade couldn't be put inside a room, either. For one, Barricade would probably feel insulted that people would trust him so easily. Sam and Bumblebee were the only exceptions to that rule. Second, even Optimus didn't entirely trust the black and white mech. Ally or not, he was still a Decepticon at heart. Maybe an Autobot deep inside, but Ironhide figured it was too deep to dig into. At least too deep for the current level of Cybertronian technology.

So they settled on giving Barricade a room with Sam and Bumblebee. Both mechs could keep Barricade in line easily. Optimus trusted Bumblebee as his soldier, and Sam... Well, his young age gave him a certain naivety that Optimus suspected Barricade was fond of. It was doubtful that Barricade could or would intentionally harm the young mech.

"What about the humans?" Jazz piped up, just as Optimus was about to adjourn the 'meeting'.

Giving Jazz a slightly irritated look, Optimus answered. "They will have to come and live with us."

"What about Barricade?" Ironhide objected. "He could just squish them."

Barricade, who was also in the room and with his patience wearing thin after about thirty minutes of them discussing where to put him, answered for Optimus. "I will not harm the squ- Humans." At this, Sam shot Barricade a grateful look, which he acknowledged with a nod.

"Alright, then." Optimus looked at Ironhide, silently pleading with him not to argue again. The day had been hard enough without Ironhide making it even harder on his processors. Thankfully, Ironhide understood the look and didn't say a word, and the mechs headed off to recharge.

---

Ratchet stopped Sam as he was walking off, quietly pulling him to the side and handing him a small object. When Sam looked at him questioningly, Ratchet answered his unspoken question. "It's something I found in your hand after you escaped from the Decepticon base. Don't worry, I haven't looked at it, but it seemed rather important, so I kept it for you." Ratchet laughed. "You were holding it so tightly I had to pry it from your fingers."

Sam nodded. He'd known Barricade would want the device, though Sam honestly doubted that the mech would ever admit it. Barricade wasn't a mech for sentimentality, even if he had his soft spots. In any case, he was grateful to Ratchet for not prying, despite the thought being somewhat hypocritical.

"Thank you." Sam said with sincerity, then just as Ratchet was about to leave, he added, "Wait, Ratchet."

Ratchet turned around, raising an optic at Sam. From the way the energy inside of him was fluctuating, Ratchet concluded the mech was nervous. Or experiencing something similar to that emotion, at any rate. Walking back, he replied, "Yes?"

Sam, who seemed as embarrased as it was possible for a giant metal alien robot to look embarrased, grinned somewhat sheepishly. "I was just wondering. Among Cybertronians, are there any females?"

Ratchet, who realised immediately that the topic was not exactly what Sam wanted to ask and that the mech was simply approaching it in a roundabout way, decided to answer his real question in his answer. "Yes, but they are much rarer among us Cybertronians. As such, most of us take partners with those of the same gender." Pausing, Ratchet looked at Sam amusedly. "That is what you wanted to ask, is it not?"

Looking sheepish, Sam nodded. Ratchet laughed.

"Then, Sam," Ratchet smiled, "We will begin your education on Cybertronian culture tomorrow... And that includes the things I know you want to learn about." Turning, Ratchet left, leaving Sam wondering just how little the mech missed. Probably almost nothing. Of course, there was the possibility that Ratchet could be wrong about what he wanted to know, but Sam doubted it.

---

The next morning found Mikaela banging her head against Sam's front wheel as Miles continued to rant about how _excited_ he was that he could help them, and how he could actually skip school in a way that was actually _legal_ and wouldn't be considered truancy. Sam wondered if he had noticed that Optimus had also mentioned that the Autobots would tutor the humans while they were there. Apparently, Optimus knew quite well how far behind both Mikaela and Miles would be in their studies if they were to skip school for the duration of the war. No one knew just how long the war would last, after all.

As for himself, Sam didn't need to learn the things that they studied in school. Calculations could be done internally, and besides, he knew everything there was to know through the Internet. On the other hand, he had much to learn about Cybertronian culture and their own form of studies, which contained such a vast amount of information that it had to be taught through normal, more human means rather than simple databursting. No databurst could contain that much information, and Cybertronian teaching methods were... unique enough that it was faster than databursting.

Both Mikaela and Miles were to have a temporary home with the Autobots, otherwise precious time would be wasted if the Autobots had to drive to their homes to fetch them every time there was a raid. Will and Keller were staying as well, although the Secretary of Defense had to keep a video channel open with the military base so he could keep an eye on what was going on.

Finally, Mikaela's agitation reached its peak, and turning in her seat, she hit Miles on the head with a solid _thwack_. Sam sniggered a little through the radio, knowing the smack had to have hurt. Mikaela was many things, but she wasn't weak.

As for Miles, his reaction was to stare indignantly at Mikaela and quiet down, for which Mikaela breathed a sigh of relief. Moments later, Miles began on a second rant, this time about Mikaela's injustice.

Mikaela groaned. "This is going to be a long ride..." she muttered. Sam agreed.

Thankfully, the drive did not, in fact, take much longer. In terms of actual time, at any rate. To Mikaela, it felt like an hour, and to Sam... Well, it was normal, since he tuned himself out of the conversation after about thirty-seven point zero two three seconds. He could've been more accurate, but he didn't really feel like counting up to twenty decimal points.

Optimus welcomed the two humans as they arrived, giving them two government-funded cars that Keller had helped to provide. The Autobot's base was huge, and neither Mikaela nor Miles had any hope of being able to navigate the place without the help of a vehicle or a map. The cars came with an electronic map of the base, much like a GPS, so that was one problem solved, at least.

The humans found that they would be staying in rooms close to their respective partners, for convenience. It hadn't been too hard to knock a small hole in the wall and install the electronics, considering how huge the base was.

Once Sam had ensured that his friends had settled in well, he went to find Ratchet, hoping the mech would make good of his promise. He had a lot to learn about.

Ratchet remembered, of course. Sam suspected that the larger mech kept everything stored in a file somewhere, organised neatly into sub-categories.

And so the lesson began. Most of the information, such as the basics of Cybertronian culture, their religion and beliefs, he stored away in a seperate file, deciding to go over it later. Other things, such as Cybertronian etiquette, he paid attention to. Then came the part he had been hoping Ratchet would mention, and Ratchet obviously knew it was what he had been waiting for as he cast a knowing look over the younger mech.

"As for showing signs of affection between mechs or femmes, we have the same custom as you do, that which you call hugging." Ratchet found himself rather amused by the disappointment that flickered across Sam's face. Smirking slightly, he continued. "As for showing that you have _feelings_ for someone, kissing is also a normal custom, except where one of the mechs do not have a mouth." Ratchet smirked again in amusement as a mixture of realization, horror and mortification crossed Sam's face. "In that case, a simple databurst would be required, but a databurst that is empty."

Sam was confused. Empty databurst? That didn't make much sense to him. Seeing his confusion, Ratchet explained. "A databurst without any data, or just a burst of energy between mechs or femmes. If the other person responds, the exchange of energy can be rather pleasurable."

Sam wished he could blush. Obviously, the older mech had no qualms about talking of...things. Turning quickly, he walked out of the room before Ratchet could say more, claiming he had just remembered something he had o do. In fact he had, but it was also an excuse to escape from Ratchet, who was now laughing out loud. Sam muttered something under his breath.

---

Barricade was confused.

It seemed he always, recently. Kindness wasn't something he experienced a lot, especially in the Decepticon ranks. Here in the Autobot base, he had expected it to be somewhat friendlier, but not that much. After all, the Autobots were still soldiers. They were still fighters. Fighting for a cause they believed in, yes, but it was still fighting. The carnage and horror of battle was something he'd resigned himself to long ago, so much so that the death of a mech didn't make him even twitch. Of course, the side effects of such an emotional withdrawal included not feeling much any more. Barricade couldn't quite understand how the Autobots could maintain their sanity. Not if they grieved for every soldier lost on the battlefield. Turning over in his recharge berth, the mech sighed, and spoke of his thoughts to Bumblebee, who was lying in his own recharge berth across the room.

Bumblebee sat up when Barricade asked him the question, face contemplative. "It is true that we grieve for every soldier who dies, and that can indeed drive a person insane. But we know that person died fighting for our cause. How would he feel if we went insane because of his death, and were unable to fight on?" Bumblebee paused. "By fighting on, we honour the memory of their deaths."

Barricade nodded. He didn't entirely understand, but that was to be expected for someone who had lived for vorns with the Decepticon ways. Maybe he would understand, eventually. But that would require one of the Autobots to die, and Barricade found that his contempt of the Autobots had faded away, to be replaced with... Something. He didn't know what it was, but he decided he didn't really want them to die. Not really, anyway.

At that moment, Sam walked into the room, and Barricade sat up to look at the approaching mech. Sam muttered something about Ratchet giving him _too much_ information about the intricacies of Cybertronian interaction, and went to his berth, removing something from his drawers. Barricade was about to lie back down when Sam approached him again, this time holding something in his hand.

"I found this in your room when I was in the Decepticon base." Sam muttered, and handed the holodevice to Barricade.

Barricade wasn't quite sure what he felt. One one hand, the damnable mech had snooped in his room. On the other, he had returned to him one of the most valued objects he owned. Barricade settled for nodding slightly and saying "Thank you," before standing up and punching Sam lightly, though it was still hard enough to make Sam stumble. "And that was for sneaking into my room without permission." he grumbled.

Barricade had expected a hostile reaction. At least then he would be able to retaliate, and lose himself in the fight. The older mech found that he didn't really like thinking that much. Not about emotional issues, at any rate. It gave him a headache.

However, rather than being angry, Sam _laughed_. He actually laughed. Barricade frowned, somewhat stunned, while Sam grinned at him. "I suppose I did kinda deserve that."

Bumblebee laughed as well, standing up to join the other two mechs. "So what exactly did Ratchet tell you?" he asked curiously, as the thought struck him. Sam frowned, embarassed.

"Too much." Sam answered. "He was starting to tell me about the intimate aspects of Cybertronian relationships when I ran out." At this, both Bumblebee and Barricade burst out laughing.

Sam, watched them, feeling even more embarassed, and he watched them in some discomfort, before starting to laugh himself. It was funny, if you thought about it.

Barricade, watching his two... friends, decided he had made a good choice for his friends. And listening to them, he decided he would protect their laughter and their Sparks. He was uncertain about what he was feeling, and yet he knew what it was.

Friendship.

A/N: Bit of a corny ending, I know. And a short chapter to boot. I apologise for the time skips and long update time, but I was incredibly busy... still am. I'll try to get the next update out sooner. And try to write better at that. Had a bit of a writer's block this time, so this chapter wasn't very good.


	7. War

Chapter Seven: War

Good things never last.

It was a simple fact of life. Everyone knew it, whether instinctually or through age and experience. It therefore came as no surprise to any of the mechs that the base shook with an explosion just as they began to relax. As it was, it was only Sam that reacted with panic- Everyone else worked with calm efficiency... Or as calm as could be under the threat of attack, at any rate.

Debris fell from the ceiling as Sam and the other mechs immediately ducking for cover. Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet and Optimus immediately went to the aid of their humans. After all, 'debris' to the Cybertronian race was a rockslide to the humans.

Barricade glared up at the ceiling as though the glare would stop the attack. Bumblebee had to laugh when he saw the glare, but quickly collected himself, dragging both mechs out of the room. Or rather, he would have, if Starscream hadn't landed right in the doorway just as they were about to run out.

Wasting no time, Barricade instantly reacted, blasting at the Seeker and throwing the three of them back at the same time. Starscream's own cannon blast came whistling past a second later, blasting a hole in the wall. The three mechs got up and slowly circled Starscream.

"You think you can defeat me?" Starscreamed laughed mockingly. The mechs said nothing, although Sam was inwardly smirking. They still had a trump card. Starscream most likely didn't.

And so the fighting began. Punches were thrown, cannons blasted. Starscream wore a look of surprise when the first blow was thrown by Barricade, but then smirked and began to get into the fight, grinning. Starscream enjoyed the occasional challenge, so long as he didn't lose.

While Barricade was distracting Starscream with a furious onslaught of attacks, going from underhand tricks to full-blown offensive assaults. In less than a millisecond, the mace Barricade had been about to slam into Starscream turned into a cannon and blasted Starscream in the chest, blowing him backwards and straight into the roundhouse kicks of both Sam and Bumblebee.

Starscream got up, seemingly unperturbed, and began his counterattack. Both arms transformed into plasma cannons that he charged but did not fire, instead performing a feint and half-releasing the charge at Bumblebee before pulling it back in and flipping behind Barricade, who had already moved forward to help Bumblebee. Caught off-guard by the nimble move in a small room, Barricade was unable to defend himself against the blast, and was knocked back. Bumblebee and Sam caught him.

"I see you've improved," Starscream smirked.

One thing Starscream had theorised, and thought would work quite well now, was an artificial electro-magnetic pulse produced by the combined force of the Sparks dwelling in him. Technically, it wasn't an EMP blast- the focused Spark energy was enough to trap the mind of mechs in a dark form of mental prison- That was, of course, assuming that all the Sparks inside of him were Decepticons. An Autobot Spark could well disrupt the stream of energy, unless it was weak. Starscream was rather confident that all the Sparks in him were dark, since he had written a filtering program. At any rate, there was only one way to test it out.

As he thought this, a dark excitement rose up within Starscream; something within him _stirred_. he felt the energy boiling and the wills of the Sparks joining with his, all endeavouring to cause suffering. All with the same goal. The energy boiled up and burst out of his chest, and headed for the Autobot with the purest spark, intent on trapping him.

That bot was Sam.

Sam had the part of the spark of Primus within him. In addition, he was young, a Sparkling by Cybertronian terms. He had not gone through as much trauma or pain as the rest of the Autobots- he had not seen the carnage of war. Thus the energy seeked him out.

He never saw it coming.

---

When the beam hit Sam, Starscream instantly felt depleted of his strength. Deciding a retreat was due, he quickly flew out through the debris, not noticing the state of the three bots. They were bonded to an extent, after all. Both Bumblebee and Barricade had crumpled in pain when Sam was hit, and Sam himself had collapsed on the ground.

Seeing Starscream fly off, the rest of the Decepticons assumed the worst, and took off after him, pausing only to quickly order any drones to follow them. The Autobots were thankful- Even with their boosted power, they had not been able to completely fend off the 'Cons. However, they had fared better than the last time, so that was some good news...

All thoughts of good news vanished when Optimus saw three crumpled forms lying on the floor. Approaching them cautiously, he found that they were the prone bodies of Bumblebee, Sam and Barricade. Quickly, he commed for Ratchet.

The results were not good. Although Bumblebee and Barricade would wake soon, Sam was in the Cybertronian version of a coma, and there was a cloak of negative energy keeping him that way. "He's like a magnet," Jazz had joked, attempting to lighten up the atmosphere, but no one had laughed.

Ratchet sighed. "There's nothing more I can do until Bumblebee or Barricade wake up and tell me what happened."

Silently, Optimus nodded. "How long?"

"Anything from a minute to a week." Ratchet answered.

"I see." Optimus thought for a moment. "We'll need reinforcements. I'll send for one of the Autobots to arrive. It's better if they come one by one so we don't arouse too much suspicion."

"Who'll have had the time to learn all of Earth's cultures?" Ratchet asked, confused.

Jazz looked at Ratchet. "Blurr." He stated.

"...damn." Ratchet muttered. Blurr was a hyperactive, _fast_ bot. Somewhat arrogant, too, making Ratchet dislike him. The bot had probably downloaded all of the required data in a fraction of a second Possibly less.

"Just be glad it wasn't the twins." Optimus commented. At this, both Ironhide and Ratchet groaned.

At this point, Bumblebee stirred, followed closely by Barricade. "What happened?" Bumblebee asked, then glanced around dazedly. The look in his eyes immediately sharpened into focus when he saw Sam's prone body. "What happened?!" Bumblebee repeated, an edge of panic in his voice now.

"Sam seems to be in a coma. We need you to tell us what happened. How did Sam become like this? My scans show a shroud of dark Spark energy overlaying his Spark." Ratchet spoke.

Barricade, who was considerably less panicked as compared to Bumblebee, decided he should answer before Bumblebee managed to work himself into hysteria. "We were fighting." Barricade paused, as thought looking for the right words. "There was a... shockwave... of energy. Dark energy. When it was over, Sam had collapsed. Both of us followed soon after."

Ratchet blinked, then scanned both Bumblebee and Barricade again. There was a slight tinge of residue dark Spark energy- nothing serious. It could easily be purified, and would be by the mech's own Sparks. Slowly, a thought formed in Ratchet's mind.

He couldn't believe it. _Wouldn't_ believe it. Surely no one could be so cruel? Silently, he looked through his tools, looking for the special scanner he kept for emergency purposes. The scanner was, technically, forbidden technology, since it invaded a mech's privacy by scanning a mech's Spark and showing what was occuring in there. However, the scanner had allowed him to save many patients from going insane, so he refused to give it up. The mechs saw the scanner, but rather wisely opted not to say anything.

He scanned Sam's Spark, and set it so that the output would go to the whole room. The result was astonishing... and terrifying.

The scanner transmitted the output via a databurst to all of the bots in the room. Each and every bot was overcome with visions of fear, panic, hysteria, loneliness, every negative feeling that was thought possible. Optimus, Ironhide, Jazz, Barricade, Ratchet, Bumblebee and Voidhammer all fell on their knees, as feelings of pain and humiliation, anger and hopelessness swam through them. Finally, Ratchet managed to summon up the strength to turn off the scanner.

Everyone sat on the floor, breathing hard. Even the soldiers who had millenia of experience, who had experienced countless battle trauma, even Optimus couldn't handle the onslaught of emotions. Ratchet, shakily, stood up, his theory confirmed.

"Sam is trapped in a prison of his worst nightmares. He is trapped in his own mind, with no way to get out." Ratchet spoke with a solemn look. "Not just his own nightmares, but that of a million others as well... Memories and pain collected over eons." Jazz, who very much wanted to say something to break the tension, such as "That's such a cliche", found that he couldn't. The emotional pain had knocked them all back pretty hard. They'd only experienced it for a few seconds... Sam was going through something terrible.

Bumblebee stood next, and there was a hardness in his eyes that wasn't there before. "What can we do to save him?"

Ratchet sighed. "I don't know."

Wild panic flickered in Bumblebee's eyes, and Barricade knew that the mech's protectiveness of Sam was about to take over. Without saying a word, he placed a calming hand on Bumblebee's shoulder, and the yellow mech slowly calmed.

"There might be a way." Voidhammer looked even older now, despite him being in such a small body. "The bond.... It is possible that Bumblebee and Barricade can travel through it and break Sam out of his prison. But they have to overcome the pain, and make Sam overcome it as well."

"Impossible!" Ironhide muttered. "None of us could withstand the pain!"

But before he had finished, he found that Bumblebee's form lay prone on the floor. Barricade followed suit moments later.

"...Slag." Ratchet murmered. But their bond of friendship was strong. That was shown by the measures both Bumblebee and Barricade had taken just to save their friend. They had been willing to bear the scars of the universe to help their friend, and they had done it without hesitation.

"Good luck." Optimus bowed to the prone forms, showing his respect to their willingness to aid a friend in need. Optmus himself wasn't sure if he was willing to endure such pain again.

The other mechs followed suit, bowing in respect to the prone forms. Even Ironhide did it, and he did it with a sombre sincerity that wasn't common with him. For once, he had pushed away his gruff attitude.

The mechs filed out of the room, quietly. None of them were in the mood for talking. Moments later, Optimus had called for Blurr to be sent down.

---

Having Blurr at the base was something of a comfort. The mech rushed around, doing things faster than the optic could see, with a attitude of optimism that brightened everyone up considerably. Considering the circumstances, the break was a much-needed one.

Even after Blurr was informed of the current situation on Earth, he acted cheerful, lifting up everyone's spirits. It was nice to see someone who had not been scarred by the recent events on Earth.

One thing, however, was clear- The war with the Decepticons had once again started, and this time it was a million times worse.

A/N: Really short chapter, and very abrupt ending... I apologise. I have a bit of a block again- I need to plan things out again. After the next chapter is posted, you can probably expect fast updating again. ^^; Sorry again.


	8. Darkness

Chapter Eight: Darkness

Darkness.

Pure and complete _Darkness._

Sam couldn't see a thing, not even his own hands. The darkness consumed him, strangling him, _choking_ him. he had to struggle to breathe in the oppressive darkness. He couldn't move- He couldn't feel a thing. He couldn't hear himself breathing, couldn't see, couldn't smell... He struggled against it; tried to reach for something, _anything_. Yet there was only darkness- Darkness around him, darkness enveloping him and all of his five senses, darkness enveloping his very mind.

Worse than even the darkness were the feelings that accompanied it as it encompassed his mind and indeed his very soul. Emotions of anger, hatred, horror, grief, loss and more swirled around him, never stopping, threatening to break him forever. Sam screamed, but he couldn't hear a thing. He couldn't even tell if he'd really screamed... The emotions battered against his mind, slowly chipping away at his sanity.

And yet, Sam held on. Something in him was keeping him alive. A thought, a shred of hope was preventing him from giving in, from becoming a mere medium for the vast and terrible emotions swirling around and in him. He could no longer remember what was giving him that hope, what he was holding on for, what he was waiting for... But Sam somehow knew that he could not let go. He would wait. For however long it took until his sanity broke... The countdown was starting. And Sam hoped, whatever that something was, that it would come soon, because he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold on... What was hope in despair? Sam frowned, trembling, and slowly, anger built. Sam growled in hatred as he realised that whatever it was had abandone-- _No!_ Sam quickly caught himself. He couldn't give in. He wouldn't give in. Those emotions... They . were . not . his. Growling, he forced them out and built his defence against them, a defence made with the only thing he had. Hope.

---

Bumblebee fought.

He fought with a vicious ferocity, attacked Sam's inner demons as well as the invading demons. He strained, despite the emotions pounding on him, despite the darkness pressing around him. He fought for Sam. He fought because he knew whatever horrors he was facing now, Sam was going through it a million times worse.

He ducked, whirled, spun, kicked and shot. He was being battered both physically and emotionally, but he refused to give up. This was for Sam.

And then he sensed a second presence. It took a while for him to recognise it, but eventually, he did- It was Barricade.

Bumblebee cast the other mech a grateful look, the battering emotions momentarily cleared away by the link between them. Barricade acknowledged his look, and they fought.

Breaking the Darkness wasn't easy, but with Barricade, the strain of battle and emotions were not as heavy. Both had one, singular purpose- Rescue Sam.

It was at this moment when their wills completely synchronised, completely matched, that the darkness surrounding them began to show cracks, the cracks glowing a pure white. Bumblebee realised that the bond of theirs, the bond that joined the three, was breaking through. The power of two synchronised wills was great, but...

They needed Sam.

Internally, with all the strength they could muster, Barricade and Bumblebee called out for Sam.

---

_Sam!_

Sam opened his eyes, which were glazed over. He had heard something, but he had no idea what it was. He couldn't think. What was going on...?

_SAM!_

...What? Who was disturbing him? He didn't want to go back, back to that horrible darkness, back to those terrible emotions.

_Sam, please..._

He heard the emotions in their voice. What was it? He couldn't remember what it was that he was hearing. He didn't seem to remember what that emotion was, or who was speaking... Sam strained to remember.

_Sam, come back to us... Please..._

He remembered. It was... love? His... friends were calling out to him. And there was... concern. Yes, that was the word. There was concern in their voices.

_Sam..._

Now Sam really opened his eyes, screaming as the darkness and pain came back full-force. At the same time, he remembered. Everything. He wanted to get back. Needed to get back. For his friends, for his family,for Bumblebee and Barricade, for the Autobots. And he knew at that moment, that for all that he was willing to protect, he would endure.

Endure until they got to him, or he broke out.

Which he would.

Which he _could_.

Gathering up all his energy, he _pushed_ against the darkness. And all three of their wills synchronised, shattering the Darkness.

---

When they were released, all Sam felt was pure relief. He'd gotten out. Out and away from that horrible Darkness... Away from it all... He began to shake, sobbing against Bumblebee despite his attempts to control his emotions. Bumblebee said nothing, putting a hand on Sam's shoulder to comfort him.

Finally, Sam stepped back, having regained control of himself for a moment. "Thank you." He said it to both Bumblebee and Barricade, said it with pure sincerity. Bumblebee and Barricade nodded in acknowledgement.

The exhaustion of being in the Darkness finally got to them, and they laid back flat on the floor, too tired to head to their recharge berths. All three of themslipped into recharge just seconds later.

---

Ratchet felt the energy of his three patients fluctate, and immediately rushed toward the medbay just as they fell back asleep. It was, however, a relief for him to know they had gotten out safely... He had no idea how their mental conditions would be like, but they had strong spirits. Ratchet didn't doubt that they would recover quickly.

For now, though... He had to work on their current crisis, which was to figure out how to remove the dark energy from the Earth's core. The Decepticons were doubtless amassing their troops- Cybertronian activity had been spiking the past few days. It would last for only a second before the 'Cons covered it up with their cloaking devices, but there was no way that they could cloak such a huge amount of energy. Simply put, the energy was leaking.

However, even though they knew where the Decepticon base was, it was impossible to attack. They were outnumbered greatly. Attacking would be suicide. Thankfully, the 'Cons weren't making any trouble at the moment, instead working on increasing their forces. This gave the Autobots time to plan and train.

Sighing, Ratchet put his welder to the equipment he was modifying. He wasn't built for this, but he knew enough about mechanics. Just as hewas about to start the most critical part of the process, Blurr whizzed in, grabbed the equipment he was working on and rushed out.

Ratchet stared at the disappearing match in shock, anger slowly building in his processors. Just as he was about to pick up his wrench, Blurr sped in, said "OopssorryItookthewrongone" grabbed a laser modifier and ran out. Ratchet stared after the leaving bot, deciding to plant something in his processors next time to slow him down. How could he even run that fast without overheating?

An explosion shook the base and for a single, absurd moment Ratchet wondred if Blurr had overheated and blown up. Then he came to his senses and took of running toward the source of the explosion.

When the smoke from the explosion finally cleared, Ratchet found Wheeljack sitting on the floor, , Ratchet could only stare as other Autobots ran in and gaped at the site.

"What happened here?" Optimus finally asked. "Wheeljack, what are you doing down here?"

"What are you talking about?" Wheeljack asked, confused. "What are you guys doing on the moon?"

"You appeared in our base all of a sudden," Optimus clarified. "We're not on the moon." For emphasis, he opened the curtains on a window.

Only to find themselves on the moon.

"...Alright, Wheeljack, what did you do?"

"Well, I-"

"Wait, that's not important right now." Ratchet interrupted. "The atmosphere on the moon isn't suitable for humans! Blurr, get Mikaela, Miles, Keller and Will down to the medbay, NOW!"

Frightened, Blurr took off quickly while Ratchet ran down towards the medbay to prepare the necessary equipment. Thankfully, they had a couple tanks of oxygen for emergency situations, and the remaining oxygen in and around the base hadn't completely dissipated yet.

"Alright, so, Wheeljack, what did you do this time?" Optimus asked.

"I was only building a portable space bridge!" Wheeljack protested.

"Again? It failed once and you tried again?!" Ironhide.

"This one's _portable._" Wheeljack pointed out, as though it explained everything. Optimus sighed.

"Alright, now we have to figure out how to get back, though this is a pretty good place to hide from the 'Cons... We need to be on Earth in case something happens." Optimus muttered.

"Oh! I can build a-"

"NO!" Optimus, Ironhide and Voidhammer said immediately. Jazz just laughed.

"Just build whatever it is in secret. If it works, they have nothing to complain about." Jazz winked at Wheeljack.

"Jazz! Don't encourage people to disobey me!" Optimus glared.

"It wasn't an order, so he wouldn't be disobeying you." Jazz laughed.

---

Blurr managed to grab all four humans and get them to the medbay in precisely 1.7934 seconds. Each human was several miles apart. Ratchet was, apparently, very scary. The humans had barely enough time to realise what was going on before they found themselves in he medbay.

"Ratchet, just what is going on?!" Mikaela demanded, angrily. Ratchet quickly explained the situation to them.

"For now, you're going to have to stay in here where the oxygen tanks are." Ratchet looked at the humans apologetically.

"Get Wheeljack in here, will you, Ratchet?" Mikaela asked, in her calmest and sweetest voice. Ratchet's optic twitched. He knew that tone.

"Er..." Ratchet mumbled.

"Now." Mikaela smiled, eyes hard as steel.

"Just don't hurt him too badly, I need him to build an artificial atmosphere for this base." Ratchet muttered, and Mikaela's smile just widened.

Some few minutes later, Wheeljack arrived at the medbay, walking in and smiling somwhat sheepishly at the four humans. Mikaela grinned.

"Hi!" She said, happily.

Wheeljack, blinked, confused. The human seemed happy. Why had Ratchet warned him to be careful? "Hello..." he muttered.

Mikaela's eyes acquired a dangerous glint. "So which do you want to be removed first? Your logic circuits? Cooling system? Or your energon balancer?" As she said this, she slowly stalked toward Wheeljack.

Wheeljack blinked once before her words got through his processor.

"Um... Can we talk this over?" Wheeljack asked, slowly backing away.

"Nope," Mikaela grinned, closing in on Wheeljack. Blurr, watching the scene, quickly left the room, the wind from his tracks slamming the doorshut and locking it.

"Slag!" Wheeljack desperately tried to open the door, to no avail.

---

Optimus and the rest of the 'Bots pretended not to hear the screams coming from the medbay, instead focusing on their discussion of how to remove the energy from the Earth's core. Remove because Voidhammer speculated that the energy could be purified, which would create a new Allspark... Of course, that might just restart the war for the Allspark, but there was a war on their hands now, anyway.

"We could forcibly extract it." Ironhide muttered, and Optimus glared at him.

"We have been through this, Ironhide. Although we have the technology to forcibly extract energy, in this case, we might well suck out the energy of the Earth's core as well. That, and the energy being moved that quickly could cause a reaction as large as that of a nuclear bomb when the energy reaches the surface, which would severely harm countless humans. How many times have I told you that we can't harm humans?" Optimus lectured.

"76 times... Including now, 77." Ironhide muttered sullenly.

Optimus rolled his optics as Jazz perked up. "Double seven! Seven's supposed to be a lucky number."

"Wasn't that eight?" Voidhammer joined in.

Jazz shrugged. "Seven's lucky to some people."

"Most numbers are lucky to at least one person." Voidhammer pointed out.

"Enough!" Optimus interrupted. "You are completely off topic."

"As you've already pointed out, we've already been over this," Voidhammer pointed out reasonably. "We haven't come up with any solution so far, and we're unlikely to come up with one now, unless some new circumstance pops out."

"Like us being on the moon." Optimus sighed.

"Well then, let's check the computer instead of hanging around here!" Jazz cut in cheerfully, then transformed and disappeared into the corridors. Exchanging glances, Optimus, Voidhammer and Ironhide followed.

When they reached the computer mainframe, Optimus quickly ran a scan of the Earth.

"What the...? That's odd..." Optimus muttered, running the scan again. Finally, he turned back. "We have a problem."

"What is it?" Voidhammer asked.

"We were only focusing our scans on the Earth's core before, so we didn't notice it," Optimus muttered, not seeming to notice. Coidhammer looked up at him, then quickly skittered up his body and hit him on the head.

"Get to the point, Optimus," the small mech grumbled.

Optimus sighed. "There is a layer of dark energy infused with the atmosphere of the Earth. In fact, the atmosphere is practically saturated with it. It's hard to understand how we managed to miss such strong energy signals..."

"Probably Barricade..." Voidhammer was muttering to himself. "Barricade was once a Decepticon, so he still gives off strong signals of negative energy. Both types of energy are harmless to us, but while Barricade's is harmless to humans, the type of energy the Earth is saturated in is not. However, since both energies are negative-type, they repel each other. I estimate thethe radius would be just enough to protect half of Tranquility..."

"You mean the whole of Tranquility is completely unprotected now?!" Optimus cried in horror. Voidhammer nodded.

"The Decepticons are too far away for any of their aura to repel the energy, and for some reason Barricade's energy is stonger... Proabably some past trauma engraved into his Spark."

"What about Bumblebee? He's had horrible things happen to him, too!" Ironhide protested, thinking back to... _that time_.

"Bumblebee? He did?" Voidhammer looked up, surprised. Quickly, he scanned in Bumblebee's general location, doing some quick calculations to remove the energy from the darkness Bumblebee had just entered. His eyes widened. "They would have been able to protect the whole of Tranquility, together... That means right now Tranquility is feeling the full effects of the negative energy! And it's at it's strongest the first time people receive it... This happened once in the past, too." Voidhammer's optics showed sadness.

"We need to get back down." Optimus realised.

Voidhammer nodded. "It should, at least, take a few days for the dark energy to fill up the 'gap', so we have time, at least."

---

"WHEELJACK! GET BACK HERE!" Mikaela yelled, chasing after the poor mech. Who had climbed onto Ratchet's desk so that Mikaela couldn't reach him.

---

A/N: Another short chapter. I apologise.


	9. Moon

Chapter 9: Moon

Sam woke up and almost rubbed his eyes before he realised he wasn't human anymore. As his optics onlined, he lay back down, thinking things over. He had been careless. He'd let his guard down, and in that instant, the Darkness had consumed him...

Looking around, he found the still recharging Bumblebee and Barricade. _The both of them used up a lot of their resources and energy to rescue me_, he mused. _I barely did a thing... It's my fault that they were this badly hurt._

Sam reached out with a hand, gently stroking Bumblebee's faceplates. _I'm sorry._ He thought, quietly.

Bumblebee, feeling a warm sensation on his face, woke up and onlined his optics, finding Sam staring back down at him with incredible sadness in his eyes. When Sam realised he was awake, he quickly jerked away, and averted his eyes.

"I'm sorry..." Sam mumbled softly. "It was my fault."

"What?" Bumblebee, startled, replied. "No, it wasn't! You couldn't have known that was going to happen."

"I could have fought it off." Sam muttered.

Barricade, who by this point had woken up, rolled his optics. "Give me a break, kid. Even Optimus could barely stand up to that darkness when Ratchet showed it to us."

Sam looked at him, so much sadness and self-hate in his optics that even Barricade was taken aback. "You don't understand. It was my fault," he said, bitterly, and stalked out of the room. Barricade and Bumblebee, exchanging worried glances, followed.

"Sam!" Bumblebee grabbed Sam's arm, pulling him back. "Listen to me! It wasn't your fault! None of us could fight off that pain!"

"You two did." Sam pointed out.

"We did it. Together. The three of us. It was our bond that broke the Darkness." Bumblebee spoke.

Sam sighed, knowing they wouldn't leave him alone until he accepted that fact. He forced a smile and said, "Okay, then... Why don't we find out what's been happening while we were recharging?"

Bumblebee and Barricade frowned, knowing very well that he was forcing it. However, there was no way for them to push the issue, and so they followed Sam in search of Optimus and the others.

They found Optimus at his desk, a troubled expression on his face. When he saw them, however, his face lightened. "Greetings." Optimus smiled, formally. "How are you doing from... that?"

"We're fine." Barricade cut in before Bumblebee or Sam could say anything. "We wanted to know what's been going on around here while we were... busy."

Optimus stood up and paced. "We have a problem," he explained. "Wheeljack, one of the Autobots on the moon, managed to teleport the base to the moon via another equipment failure. Thi-"

Optimus was interrupted and startled laughter from all three of the mechs, even Sam, although to Bumblebee it seemed a little forced... And late, as though he had only laughed when he noticed his friends laughing. However, as Optimus continued on to explain the situation on Earth, the three mechs quickly stopped.

"Right now, Wheeljack is attempting to build a second teleporter that will get us back on to Earth... Whether he'll make it in time is another matter entirely." Optimus resumed pacing. "At most, we have another twelve days before the energy completely saturates Tranquility."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Bumblebee asked, worried. Optimus shook his head.

"Wheeljack doesn't want to be disturbed right now, he's going through his plans to find out what went wrong. For now, try to relax. Oh- There's a new mech in the base, goes by the name of Blurr. He's an extremely fast mech, so if you happen to see something speeding past you, it's probably him." Optimus answered.

Barricade looked amused, but Sam just nodded tiredly and left the room. Glancing apologetically at Optimus, Bumblebee quickly followed, as did Barricade. Optimus glanced worriedly after them.

---

"How did you manage to teleport us up here, anyway?" Ratchet grumpily asked Wheeljack, who shrugged sheepishly. Wheeljack had called Ratchet in to help him for two reasons: One, Ratchet would be able to fix him quickly if something went wrong with one of his machines, and two, because he was hiding from Mikaela, and he figured Ratchet woud be able to help him. He had no idea that Ratchet wouldn't lift a finger should Mikaela happen to find Wheeljack.

"On the moon.. of all places..." Ratchet grumbled. "This is where the twins are! I hope to Primus they don't find us here..."

"That's asking for a miracle," Wheeljack grinned cheerfully.

Ratchet glared at Wheeljack. "Don't jinx it."

Wheeljack rolled his optics and went back to his work, looking through his plans carefully. What had gone wrong before? "Of course... Since I'm using light as the base 'four dimensional' spacetime object, there can only be a single source... I need to isolate the machine from all sources of light and produce a single beam of light for the machine to read... Oh! And..." Wheeljack muttered to himself.

Ratchet stared at Wheeljack for a while and sighed. This was going to take a while.

---

Sam gloomily stared up at the ceiling as he lay flat, having finally managed to ditch Bumblebee and Barricade. He was sure the two were looking for him frantically now, or, well, Bumblebee would be. Barricade would probably be worried, but just grumble and complain... Sam sighed. Somehow, he simply couldn't bring it into himself to care.

He didn't matter. _Sam_ didn't matter. Since the beginning, he'd only been a nuisance. In the first fight, against Barricade, he'd been so eager to show off that he'd attacked recklessly, and the consequence was that Bumblebee was hurt. Although Barricade had become his friend in the process, it was his fault that Bumblebee had gotten injured. Together, they may have been able to take down Barricade, but he just had to show off his new skills.

And then the battle afterwards with the Decepticons- He hadn't helped at all! Absolutely nothing he did was able to even scratch Starscream! Granted, everyone else was much the same, but still. He should've been able to do something- he had a _god _connected to his Spark, for Primus' sake! Not to mention residual Allspark energy fizzing around his body, which, according to Ratchet, simply refused to fizz out.

Then against Starscream... They'd been _winning_. Or at least holding their own. Then he just had to go and spoil it by getting hit by Starscream's mind trap.

Damnit.

What could he _do_? Surely there was something, anything, he could do, that would redeem himself...

He couldn't think of a single thing.

He was just a nuisance.

A nuisance to his friends, a nuisance to the Autobots.

Hell, they'd probably lose the war because of him.

Sam made up his mind. He had to leave.

---

Blurr's fingers flew over the keyboard faster than the optic could see, making a very loud and rapid 'machine gun' sort of sound. Ironhide, who happened to be in the same room trying to concentrate on looking through the files Optimus had sent him and insisted that he read, groaned aloud. "Will you stop that?!" Ironhide snapped at Blurr. "At least type slower!"

"Unfortunatelythatisimpossible." Blurr answered distractedly."BesidesOptimustoldmeto-"

"Alright, alright," Ironhide interrupted. The speedy chattering was giving him a headache. And Blurr was still typing.

"-Andyoucouldalwaysturnoffyouraudiosensors." Blurr completely ignored Ironhide's interruption.

Ironhide _snapped_ and turned to Blurr, reaching out with a hand to crush the poor mech's throat and growling unintelligibly. Blurr, who heard the growl and turned to look behind him, saw the look on Ironhide's face and fled outside. Very quickly.

Ironhide sat down, groaning, and shot the wall for good effect. Which was followed by a rather loud crash. Apparently, a very scared and surprised Blurr had crashed into a wall while travelling at double his top speed. Well, several walls...

---

"Where could he be?" Bumblebee fretted. Barricade sighed, annoyed.

"You've been asking me that for the past twenty minutes." Barricade pointed out. "As if I know."

Bumblebee glared at the mech. "I'm just worried."

"And you think I'm not?" Barricade snapped, and Bumblebee fell silent. The both of them had different ways to convey their worry for Sam. Bumblebee acted... well, _worried_, and Barricade was... not as grumpy as usual.

Then they heard a really, _really_ loud crash. Exchanging looks and fearing it was Sam, the two raced to the source of the sound.

---

Sam sat up immediately when he heard the crash. While he was worried for his friends, he realised this was a perfect oppurtunity for him to escape. There was no way he could just _tell_ the other Autobots that he was going to leave, there was no way they would allow it. Sam sighed and wrote a goodbye note to the Autobots, filing it up in the Autobot's database to automatically download itself later.

Quickly, he transformed and blew through the hallways, quickly reaching the main entrance. Thankfully, the source of the crash seemed to be located relatively far from the entrance, so he could leave without worrying too much, although he did keep his sensors on full alert. Nothing eventful happened, however, and Sam was able to leave the base undetected.

He drove across the moon's surface. Normally, he would enjoy the feeling of... lightness that he hadn't had since he'd been turned Cybertronian again. But he found that he couldn't. He was too upset with himself.

Sam sighed as a final, heavy question brought itself up in his mind.

What was he going to do now?

---

Prowl patrolled silently around the perimeter of the base, sensors on high alert. This time, he'd decided to go by himself instead of making someone else go. Being on the moon and all, they would probably let their guard down. After all, who would be suspicous of attack when they were living on the moon? It was always good to be cautious, however, and Prowl knew that it was entirely possible for some Decepticons to be on the moon. According to Optimus, the Decepticons were amassing their forces. It was unlikely that all of them would fit on Earth without giving out energy signals strong enough to be sensed across the solar system.

Prowl drove on silently until he spotted a black and silver coloured car driving along the surface of the moon. Cars did not belong on the surface of the moon. From what he'd learnt so far, which was a lot, humans could not live on the moon, thus it was illogical for a car to be on the moon.

Not to mention the car was empty.

There was only one conclusion that could be made- The car was a mech.

Quickly, Prowl transformed and stepped in front of the car, which immediately braked and transformed. "State your name and faction."

"Uh..." Sam thought quickly. He couldn't call himself an Autobot- this new mech might make him go back to the base. "I'm Nightslicer. I'm... uh... Neutral."

Prowl looked at Sam, and answered flatly, "All the Neutrals are dead. State your true faction."

The mech was sharp, Sam surmised. He sighed. "I'm Autobot... But don't make me go back there!" he added defensively when Prowl took a step forward. Prowl frowned.

"You do not want to return to the base?" Prowl asked. "I have not seen you on the base. Are you still lying?"

"No, Wheeljack made the Earth base teleport up here... Look, just don't make me go back there. I don't want to hurt them anymore..." Sam broke down, voice cracking.

"You are Sam." Prowl concluded. It was the only possible person he could be- He knew what all the other mechs from Earth looked like. "Why do you not want to return?"

"I-I don't want to hurt them." Why did Sam feel as though he could trust this mech? He didn't even know him, and yet, somehow, he seemed trustworthy.

"Do you not hurt them by leaving?" Prowl asked. "My reports indicate that designation Bumblebee is rather fond of you."

If Sam could have blushed, he would have. "I'll hurt him- Them- More if I stay... I've only been bad luck since I met the Autobots."

"You saved our leader, Optimus Prime." Prowl stated. "You also destroyed Megatron. You brought designation Barricade over from the Decepticon side. You have been in several fights for the Autobot cause. I do not see what you have to be sorry for." Prowl felt rather awkward. He wasn't good for this comfortig stuff.

"And I got hit by a dark-mind zapping ray thing! And Bumblebee and Barricade had to go in and get me! They had to endure that torture because of me..." Sam wailed.

Prowl only sighed, awkwardly placing a hand on the distressed mech's shoulder. "You could not have known. Nothing of this sort has happened before. There are no records of anything lik this ever happening. The one who got hit could just as easily have been Bumblebee or Barricade. And would you not have stepped in to help them as well?"

"Yeah... but..." Sam found he couldn't argue Prowl's logic.

"Think about it." Prowl smiled, transforming and driving on to continue on his patrol. Sam frowned a little and drove on, a little slower, contemplating what the mech had said... Come to think of it, he'd completely forgotten to ask for the mech's name. Well... He'd see him again. Maybe.

---

Bumblebee was out of his mind with worry. They couldn't find Sam _anywhere_. After they had ascertained that Blurr was fine, Bumblebee had immediately reported Sam's disappearance to Optimus, knowing there was no way for just the two to find him- He could be anywhere on the base. Or outside it, even... A dreadul thought formed itself in Bumblebee's mind. No, he wouldn't have, would he? No way Sam would have run away.

However, all of the Autobots on the base except for Wheeljack had searched every inch of the base unsuccessfully. Ratchet had even used his long-range scanners to attempt to find him, although that particular scanner was supposed to be used for finding injured mechs on a battlefield. Now Optimus was checking the video footages from the security cameras installed on the base. Keller had insisted on installing them, and now Bumblebee was glad that they had. If only it could give a clue of where Sam had gone...

Bumblebee watched, fidgeting, as Optimus looked through the videos. Barricade was behind him, also watching Optimus intently. At length, Optimus said, "I found something."

Bumblebee rushed over to his side, followed by Barricade, although the other mech pretended he wasn't really rushing. Optimus showed them the footage of Sam driving out of the base. "Oh, no..." Bumblebee muttered, hoping some miracle would happen to tell him Sam hadn't run away.

_Beep!_ A sound from the computer was heard as a file uploaded itself onto the database. It was titled, "From Sam." Bumblebee felt some hope. Was it Sam saying he'd just gone out to explore?

His hopes were crushed, however, as he read the note, which detailed how Sam had failed his friends and how he was now leaving to prevent any further mishaps to happen. All that wasn't Sam's fault! He saw that Barricade had already transformed and was going out after Sam, and he quickly followed. Barricade slowed to let him follow. Apparently, he knew that Bumblebee wasn't quite thinking clearly at the moment.

"Wait!" Optimus called. The rest of the Autobots were now behind him, after a quick transmission. All except for Wheeljack, who was still working. "We'll go with you. The moon is too big for you to find Sam on your own."

Bumblebee just nodded and raced out of the base with Barricade. Optimus sighed, and followed, with Ratchet, Ironhide, Jazz, Voidhammer and Blurr following.

---

Bumblebee drove on silently and Barricade did not disturb him, knowing the yellow mech was probably distraught about Sam's disappearance.

They drove for a while until Barricade judged that Bumblebee had calmed down a little, although he was still worried about his charge. Barricade sighed, and muttered, "We'll find him. Don't worry so much. It's annoying."

Bumblebee shot him a look of half-gratefulness and mock anger. Barricade just chuckled, and, with the tension not so thick, they continued on.

Then they found a white police car driving on the surface of the moon.

Which was, of course, rather awkward, considering there were no white police cars on the moon.

Bumblebee recognised his energy signature as that of Prowl's. "Prowl!" he called out. The car stopped and transformed.

"Yes?" Prowl was rather annoyed that his patrol was being interrupted yet again.

"Have you se-"

"Designation Nightslicer, or Sam, is headed 23.5 degrees north of this position." Prowl stated.

"...Okay, thanks." Bumblebee muttered, driving off in the direction Prowl had indicated. Barricade followed closely.

"He copied me." Barricade muttered under his breath. Bumblebee rolled his eyes as both of them received a transmission from Prowl.

_"No, I did not. The choice of this form is the most logical as police have more authority than civilians, allowing me access to certain resources that can only be used by human police. In addition-"_

_"I get it already! I chose this form for reasons mostly the same! So shut up already!" _Barricade commed back.

_"..."_

---

Now that they knew where Sam was, it took only a moment for Bumblebee and Barricade to find him. He was driving slowly and did not seem to notice either of them. Bumblebee approached slowly- He didn't want Sam to race away when he noticed they were there. Softly, he said, "Sam?"

The driving car gave a jerk as though surprised, then slowly rolled to a stop, although he didn't transform. Slowly, a choked voice came out. "W-Why did you come after me?"

"Do you have any idea how much you hurt me when you left?" Bumblebee asked somewhat angrily. He didn't notice that he had said 'me' instead of 'us'. Both Barricade and Sam did, however, although they chose not to say anything as Bumblebee began ranting about how he should never have left, or should have at least said something first. Barricade discreetly sent a transmission to Prime to tell him that they had found Sam- The rest of the Autobots could return to base.

As Bumblebee continued to rant, Barricade looked at Sam, smiling slightly as the younger mech transformed. "Ready to go bacl, kid?"

Sam was smiling at the still ranting Bumblebee- A real smile, this time. "I suppose you won't let me stay out here anyway."

"Nope." Both Bumblebee and Barricade said this, grinning.

---

A/N: Quick note: Criticism is gold. As to all my (very few) readers, thank you for reading my story. If you've reviewed and I haven't replied, I apologise. I haven't had a chance to reply because I'm kinda busy right now, but I'll get around to it... And like I said, criticism is gold. If you have ANY tips that could improve my writing, please, tell. =)


	10. Emergency

Chapter 10: Emergency

Once Sam, Bumblebee and Barricade had regrouped with the rest of the Autobots, they began driving back to the base. Sam was reprimanded by Optimus, however, Bumblebee's glare had stopped him from going to far. Besides, he knew Sam had been through a lot. Barricade just snickered through the exchange.

After that, they headed back to base- All except for Blurr, who had already dissappeared. Optimus shook his head slightly. That mech was _fast_.

The drive back was mostly in silence, with the exception of Ratchet grumbling a "Don't you dare do that again you hear me?" and Ironhide threatening him with his cannons. Sam wondered just how many cannons Ironhide had- He could swear he'd seen at least nine different cannons. The one Ironhide had threatened him with this time was the tenth.

"How does he even keep that many cannons?" Sam wondered to himself.

"Well..." Bumblebee responded. Apparently Sam had spoken out loud. "He-"

"DON'T tell me." Sam quickly interrupted. "I don't think I want to know."

"Believe me you don't!" Barricade laughed as he joined in the conversation.

The three mechs shared a chuckle before lapsing into silence. They continued like this for a while until Bumblebee spoke up.

"Hey, Sam?" Bumblebee asked, softly.

"Yeah?" Sam responded.

"...Don't do that to me again. Please." Bumblebee mumbled.

Sam sent a wave of reassurance through a databurst. "Don't worry. I won't."

Barricade noted that Bumblebee had said 'me' again, instead of us. This time, Sam apparently hadn't noticed, or hadn't thought much of it if he had.

---

They had reached the base.

The base _wasn't there_.

It was hard to comprehend, really, because everyone was standing there in shock except for Blurr and Optimus. Blurr, who had arrived long before everyone else, was reporting to Optimus. Of course, there wasn't much to report since he didn't have much of an idea what had happened, either.

"Where the _slag_ is the base?!" Ironhide snarled out. Bumblebee, amused at his reaction, chuckled, only to be shot a silent glare that promised pain. A lot of pain. Mostly from being target practice… Bumblebee gulped and looked away, trying to put the matter to the back of his mind.

Blurr, who was by this time bored of doing nothing, ran to where the base was before. "Ijustcan'tundersta-" Blurr was abruptly interrupted by slamming face first into what was apparently air.

"Blurr? Are you alright?" Sam asked, concerned. Blurr nodded.

"What the slag is this?" Ironhide growled, prodding at the solid air. Taking a step back, he charged his cannons, only to be tackled by Barricade.

"Stop it!" Barricade snapped. Ironhide stared at the mech, stunned. Optimus nodded as he realized what Barricade had.

"It's invisible," Optimus muttered. Seeing the blank looks the other mechs were giving him, he quickly clarified. "The base. It's invisible."

"Why the _slag_ would the base be invisible?!" Ironhide growled.

"Because someone," Ratchet glared as he activated his scanners, "made it that way." Walking over to a blip on his scanners, he punched into the air without hesitation. An "ow" quickly followed as Sunstreaker shimmered into view, Sideswipe quickly following as he went to help his brother.

"You scratched my paint!" Sunstreaker complained. Ratchet glared.

"I'll do more than that if you keep complaining!" Sunstreaker quickly shut up at the threat.

"Can you restore the base now, please?" Optimus watched the scene mildly.

Sunstreaker sighed. "Alright, whatever." The base shimmered into view as Sunstreaker tapped on an invisible keypad.

The group of bots sighed, trudging into the building. Sam, however was stopped by Sunstreaker.

"Who are you?" Sunstreaker glared. Sam blinked at the hostility in his tone.

"I'm Sam… The ex-human? Didn't Optimus brief you guys about it?"

Sunstreaker stared at him for another three seconds, then turned and stalked away, huffing. Sam stared at his retreating form, wondering what had just happened. Sideswipe chuckled.

"Ignore him," he grinned, clapping a friendly hand on Sam's shoulder. "He's just jealous of your paintjob."

"I am not!" Sunstreaker called back angrily. Sideswipe just shook his head, smiling softly.

"I'm Sideswipe, and that," he indicated the yellow form moving away from them, "is my twin brother, Sunstreaker."

"You have twins?" Sam asked, surprised.

"Of course." Sideswipe grinned, then stopped, scanning Sam's body closely. Sam shifted uncomfortably under the close scrutiny.

"…What is it?" he asked.

Ignoring him, Sideswipe called Sunstreaker over and databurst something to him. Sunstreaker stared at him for a while, then gave a grudging nod.

"Alright," Sideswipe grinned. "You're small enough. Climb into the vents to Ironhide's room and plant this camera there."

His tone was authoritative enough to convince Sam to respond with an "Okay" and actually start moving before what the red mech had said got through to him, at which point he turned as stared uncomprehendingly at Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. "Wait, you want me to do _what_?!"

"Climb into the vents of the base, get into Ironhide's room, and plant the camera." Sideswipe grinned, completely oblivious to Sam's horrified look. "We'll be pulling some pranks on him and I want video footage."

"Blackmail." Sunstreaker joined in, grinning. He didn't seem quite as upset as he was before.

"I-I can't do that!" Sam yelped. Then he wished he hadn't, because in the next instant both Sunstreaker and Sideswipe hacked into his system and force-databurst him several terabytes of baby pictures. And sparkling pictures. And every single thing a human would define as 'cute', as well as some the twins thought were, resulting in several traumatising images mixed in. After all, some humans have weird ideas of 'cute', and some mechs are worse. Sam was dizzy from the onslaught.

"Okay, I'll do it!" Sam quickly gasped out, stumbling a little. Sideswipe grinned.

"Good boy! Now go!"

"I'm not your dog!"

---

Sam crawled through the vents, wondering why he had ever agreed to doing what the twins had wanted in the first place. He had a feeling he would be torn apart and scrapped very, very soon.

After consulting the internal map of the base Sideswipe had given him, he made a left, grumbling to himself all the while. He froze when he head a noise coming from the vent, not daring to breathe in case it was Ironhide. Then he realised something.

He was made of metal. The vent was made of the same material. Moving through it would be incredibly noisy and attention-rousing.

Mentally, he cursed, wondering if the twins had done this on purpose. Probably. If he succeeded, they'd get a laugh. If he failed, they'd still get a laugh., the metal-on-metal clanking sound making that even more likely. He didn't even know them and they were pulling pranks on him- Was that why Ratchet and the others seemed to despise the twins so much?

Not moving, he lay in the vents, thinking. Surely there was a way to turn this around on the twins?

The idea came to him as he relaxed, and a wicked grin overcame his features. He was turning the prank back on them.

Quickly, he turned, now not caring about the sounds he made, and crawled over to Blurr's room, opening the vent and hopping down. Blurr, who was in recharge, instantly snapped awake and took a battle stance- However, he relaxed when he saw Sam.

"Whatareyoudoinghere?" Blurr rambled, confused. Before he could continue, Sam cut him off and explained his plan. Blurr grinned- he didn't quite like the twins, since they had once played a prank on him by placing oil in his path and causing him to slip and crash. Without a word, he took the camera Sam held out to him and left.

---

"I'm done!" Sam called out to the twins as he spotted them, still lounging oround somewhere next to the base. They looked surprised, and Sam inwardly grinned.

"Really?" Sunstreaker demanded. "Let's test it then." He reached for the monitor system he had set up on the ground, but Sam stopped him.

"No, wait. I dropped the camera on the way and it kinda broke a bit, you're going to have to connect it directly to your optics."

Sideswipe shook his head. "That was careless of you." Reaching for the cable, he connected it to both his and his brothers' optics.

---

Blurr grinned as he managed to sneak out of the base, and, finding a secluded spot where dust raised up by his speed would not be seen- More specifically, a crater- he began to spin as he held the camera. He spun at top speed.

---

Sam grinned as he watched both twins get overtaken by the sensory overload from their own optics, as their world spun before them. When they connected it to their optics, they inadvertently connected it to their systems, so it felt like they themselves were spinning. Sam could only laugh as the two mechs spun in a surprised circle and collapsed on top of each other.

_Don't underestimate me. _He thought, smugly.

---

"...What on earth..." Optimus stared at the screen, not daring to believe what he was seeing. Voidhammer was perched on his shoulder, just as astonished.

"Impossible." Voidhammer muttered quietly. "It shouldn't have entered Tranquility that fast..."

They were looking at the crime statistics of Tranquility, an estimation of how much crime and such was going on in the city.

The crime percentage was at seventy percent. No where in Tranquility was safe any more, from murder, from robbery, from rape. They had to get back, and fast.

A/N: Short, sorry... Kinda gets the plot going though. Anyway, I'm really sorry for the delay. To make up for it I'll... Write something? I don't know xD Ask! If I like the idea I'll probably write it. Maybe. If I have time. Did anyone watch RotF? It blew me away. Blew away my writer's block, too. xD


	11. Merge

Chapter 11: Merge

A/N: Nothing to say here. Enjoy!

---

When Optimus finally recovered from the shock of seeing the statistics of Tranquility, he called an emergency meeting of the Autobots- the ones in the base, at any rate. When everyone assembled, Optimus quickly debriefed them, noting but dismissing the absence of the twins.

When Sam heard the news, he flinched. He seemed to have mostly recovered from the incident with the darkness, however, now worry and fright dominated his features. Baumblebee and Barricade looked over at him, concerned, but he shook his head to indicate it had nothing to do with his depression.

"If Tranquility is this bad, what about the rest of the world?" Ratchet asked, worry lacing his voice. Optimus shook his head.

"I'll check now." Quickly, he typed some commands and found, to his disbelief, that almost everyone had turned to crime. Those who hadn't wanted to were now forced to kill and steal just to survive; it was as if Earth had been transformed into a primal version of it's former self.

"Wheeljack..." Ironhide growled. Wheeljack nodded, a determined look in his optics, and slipped out of the room.

Trying to tap into the Internet, in order to see what Earth's population thought, he found that the internet was no longer being maintained. The most powerful and famous sites were down, probably from massive DDoS attacks.

No site had been updated for the last three days.

Optimus wondered how they hadn't noticed this before- This much inactivity on the net? No blog posts, forum posts, anything, in the huge web that connected the world? Surely it was impossible.

Then they found it. One site that had been updated recently- Just an hour or so ago, in fact. Resistandfight dot blogspot dot com.

There was a resistance force on Earth.

Those who were unaffected, or less affected, by the dark energy, apparently. They seemed confused- or perhaps it was just one person. Optimus tried to trace it to his source, only to be stopped dead by a firewall.

A cybertronian firewall.

"Impossible." Ratchet murmured, but that word seemed to be too easily thrown around, now. A lot of impossible things were happening, and fast.

Wordlessly, Barricade reached for the computer. "May I?"

Slowly, Optimus nodded and stepped back.

Barricade connected with the mainframe, optics shuttering as he logged in. He scanned the firewall for a moment or two, then shook his head.

"We can't hack it." He informed the surprised autobots. Not surprisingly, Ironhide protested. Vehemently.

"What makes you think that?! None of us have tried it yet! What makes you think YOU are so much better than us?!"

"Frenzy wrote this." Barricade said, flatly. "And while I know his usual mistakes when writing a firewall, someone had patched them up."

"Probably... Glen?" Sam surmised. The rest of the autobots threw a surprised glance at him.

"What makes you think so?" Bumblebee asked him.

"Maggie said it herself; Glen's the best hacker around. I think he's the only hacker able to hack into a Cybetronian signal- He's certainly the first- and it makes sense that he'd be able to patch up any loopholes Frenzy may have left."

---

Wheeljack was working on the space bridge. It was a pity Perceptor and the others weren't on this base with them- They were on the moon, but relatively far, therefore Optimus had been unable to call them here for the meeting. Had Perceptor been there, or even Prowl, he could finish the space bridge much earlier. Actually, having Perceptor here would be preferable- He only wondered why he was unable to comm him.

Wheeljack cursed as a component sparked and a thin wisp of smoke emerged. He needed to get this done fast, but he couldn't do it! He simply couldn't imagine what had gone wrong. Surely he had calculated the power balance accurately? He had to have- There was simply no time to recalculate it. That alone wouldtake at least a day, and then the modifications needed afterwards would take even longer. Time wasn't a luxury they could afford.

Just as he was thinking this, the twins burst into his room, snarling. "Where's Sam?!" Sideswipe growled.

"What did he do?" Wheeljack asked, desperately trying to think of a way to get them out, fast- He needed time to think alone, dammit!

"Linked a spinning camera to our optics," Sideswipe growled.

At the same time, Sunstreaker shrieked loudly, "He scratched my paint!"

Wheeljack shook his head, somewha amused that someone had gotten the better of the Twins, before an idea came upon him. Eyes brightening, he completely ignored the twins thereafter and set to work on the needed modifications, muttering quietly to himself.

"Of course... It would be much faster if I had a second medium to act as a receiver! I was originally trying to create just one transmitter, but now there's a time restraint, and I was pretty sure there wasn't such a source on Earth... But now I remember. Optimus and Voidhammer said that there was a dark energy covering the earth, didn't they? As long as I made that the receiver, I can make it in a few hours... Now, how to pinpoint the location... Ah, of course! The old location of the base has less of the energy, so if I isolate that, I should be able to..."

---

Sam groaned into his hands as Bumblebee wrapped an arm around his shoulders to comfort him. "I can't believe it... Tranquility, my parents! This is a disaster..."

Barriacde snorted. "Do you really think your mother will fall for all that with her bat and all? I bet you all my high-grade that they're part of the resistance."

Bumblebee glared at the saleen, but Sam managed an, albeit weak, smile. "Thanks, 'Cade."

Barricade grunted, slightly embarrased, though he certainly wasn't going to allow it to show.

"So what are we going to do now?"

Sam grinned and launched into a tale of what he had done to the twins. By the end of it Bumblebee was grinning madly, and Barricade had a slight smirk on his face.

"Didn't know you had it in you." Barricade seemed to have an approving tone in his voice, and Sam smiled all the more because of it. Bumblebee laughed, agreeing.

---

"DO YOU EVER SHUT UP?!" Ironhide growled. Blurr frowned at him.

"NotwhenI'mnervousIdon't!" He retorted, obviously rather pissed at the gunner. Ironhide growled and charged his cannons.

"SodidItellyouaboutthetimetherwasalandslideonCybertron?" Blurr asked nonchalently, even as he dodged multiple blasts by Ironhide, blasts that left smoking holes in the floor. The reinforced floor. Blurr would probably be dead if he got hit by one, but he was quite confident of himself.

"It's Cybertron!" Ironhide glared. "How can there be a landslide?!"

"Wellit'spossibleobviously," Blurr stated, seeming pleased that Ironhide was not only listening but was able to catch up on what he was saying. He gave Ironhide a grin, which only served to further irritate the gunner.

"ARGH!" Ironhide blasted the wall for good measure and stalked off, huffing.

---

Mikaela was waiting. Along with Keller, Miles, and Will. They hadn't been allowed out of the medbay, even when Optimus had called the emergency meeting. As a result, the four humans were waiting impatiently for Ratchet to come back and explain things to them.

And return Ratchet did. The moment he arrived, he went straight to the table and began to murmur to himself as he began scanning his tools to make sure they were functioning properly and making repairs on the ones who weren't.

Five minutes later, Mikaela was sick and tired of waiting and threw her own wrench at Ratchet.

It didn't hurt Ratchet, of course, but it did serve the effect of causing Ratchet to look down, albeit annoyed. Mikaela glared up at him, and Ratchet glared back.

"What do you want?" Ratchet asked, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice.

Mikaela sighed in exasperation. "Meeting. Explain. Now."

Ratchet turned around and began fixing his tools again, but this time he spoke aloud while he was working, explaining the situation. When he was done, the humans sat, digesting the horrifying information.

"Well then," Will finally said when he was able to speak, "Let's go."

"Where?!" Ratchet snapped around to look at them, only to flinch back ever so slightly. Worry and determination was in their features- They had friends and family that they wouldn't simply give up on. That kind of emotions Ratchet knew he couldn't argue with.

"We need to get ready. If the other humans are that violent, they'll probably be shooting at us. We can't shoot back lest we hurt them, so we need to get armour. Lightweight, of course. You have the necessary equipment, right Ratchet?" Will stated.

Ratchet nodded.

"Then we'll be taking our leave now."

"Just take the oxygen tanks with you. The portable ones."

---

"I'm done!" Wheeljack cheered as he finished the modifications. He commed Optimus, who told him to activate it immediately upon receiving the signal, before calling another meeting. This time, the humans came along.

---

"We will be doing one last scan of the Earth before we go, just in case." Optimus said. "Via satellite as well as through our scans. I'm warning you, what you see may not be pretty at all. Ready?"

As the mechs nodded, Optimus activated the satellite scan.

They all gasped.

Parts of the Earth were actually twisting, both upwards and inwards, and gaining a metallic sheen. The entire globe was devoid of weather- No clouds were in sight.

The scariest thing was the humans themselves.

All over, there were humans with mad, deranged looks on their faces, engaging in some horrible act like murder.

And all this was done in public.

The murder wasn't clean and quick, either- It was slow and brutal. The mechs watched with horrified eyes as one person got their arm ripped off. Weapons were strewn about; guns, chainsaws, even rocket launchers. There were tanks driving around, tanks with humans in them that weren't a hologram.

Earth had become a disaster.

Then Bumblebee wordlessly pointed out a particularily weak and scrawny human.

That same human had lifted up a boulder at least as large as him and thrown it at someone, crushing them.

Yet another human had completely wrapped himself around someone else in what would be otherwise an amazing show if flexibility. He was acting like a boa.

"This level of strength is abnormal in humans; impossible, in fact." Ratchet whispered in horror. Miles and Mikaela didn't fare much better than anyone else, in fact, they were close to horrified tears as they stared at the wreck the human race had become.

And there were Decepticon drones everywhere.

"As much as I would like us to stay and plan... We can't do that." Optimus mumured. Everyone nodded in agreement and Optimus commed Wheeljack with what they had seen.

The response was the base glowing blue, flashing, and disappearing back to Earth.

---

A/N: Didn't reach my goal of at least two thousand words. Pity. Well, not in this page anyway. There's more than meets the eye with this chapter... If you find it, review and tell me how you like the idea. If you don't, review anyway! xD I may reveal it in the next chapter. I may not. =P


	12. Worlds

Chapter 12: Worlds

A/N: Not so happy with this one. Kinda forced my self to write a little bit every night. I have a consistent urge to write that battles with a consistent urge to be lazy. =P

Rattentod: I tend to type extremely fast when I get absorbed in my writing, so I make a lot of errors. If you find any, alert me! If your review was more about my writing style, it would be nice if you specified how I should change because I don't want to rely on betas too much. =P Not that there are anything wrong with betas! I'm just an independant person. I may try to ask one to help me in the future, though.

---

As the light faded, Sam ran the window to look outside.

He let out a horrified gasp.

Seeing something on a screen was one thing. However real it looked, some part of your brain would refuse to believe it, simply because you didn't have physical evidence of it. It was a natural reaction.

When that something turned out to be real, all of Sam's- and indeed all the other mech's- hopes were crushed. Instantly.

It was even worse than what they had seen on the screen. Destroyed buildings and rubble lay there like trees in a forest. It looked like Devastator had run through the place. Several times.

And there were the Decepticon drones that were patrolling around town. They didn't even seem to have noticed the appearance of the base- Probably because no command had been given to them for what to do in this situation. Not that the situation wasn't bad enough.

The mechs- and humans- in the base watched in horror as the humans and the drones actually _fought_. Being Cybertronian and all, the drones won the majority of these battles, but some humans were winning. As they watched, a human picked up a boulder and threw it with impossible strength, sending a mech-drone staggering back.

The Autobots weren't sure if they felt happy that the humans could defend themselves, or horrified at how monstrous the humans had become. Even the humans in the base weren't entirely sure if they were even the same race as the monsters outside.

Bumblebee reached out to put a hand on Sam's shoulder, whispering, "I'm sorry..."

Sam turned around and Bumblebee almost recoiled. His optics showed rage. Pure, unadulterated rage. "Megatron..." he hissed, thumping his fist in the wall hard enough to leave several cracks.

At the noise, several of the... beings... outside turned to look at the base. "Oh, _shit,_" Sam muttered, gritting his teeth. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Ratchet sighed. "It seems the Twins have cloaked the base again. We have something to thank them for, for once."

As if on cue, the twins burst in. "What happened here?!" Sunstreaker demanded, gesturing outside.

"Where are we?!" Sideswipe glared. Both spoke at the same time.

"AND YOU!" Sunstreaker yelled, pointing at Sam.

At that point, all the mechs were getting headaches and the Twins shut up. Evidently Optimus had databurst them the situation.

"Alright," the leader of the Autobots sighed, "First things first- We need to find the resistance forces on earth. The only problem is, we couldn't hack in, so how could we locate them?"

"Could there be a message in the site?" Sam spoke up, having calmed down after feeling Bumblebee's calming touch. "After all, they said that no one had enough intelligence left intact to read."

"Then why didn't they just reveal their location?" Ratchet pointed out. Sam shrugged.

"Decepticons, maybe? Or a precaution, in case there were a few who could read, if only a little?" Sam answered.

"Let us see if any information could be found, then," Optimus said, and the mechs simultaneously accessed the site.

"Hey! What about us?" Mikaela complained, then brightened as their respective partners projected a hologram of the site in question.

A while later, the mechs were well and truly stumped. The humans were still staring at the website, trying to figure out if there was anything there that could be decoded, or some such. The mechs on the other hand, had tried to convert the letters on the page to hex, convert that to decimal, and translate the decimal to a corresponding letter, with no success.

Suddenly, Mikaela let out a laugh, and everyone stared at her, startled. How could she laugh in a situation like this? Mikaela quickly sobered up as she remembered the situation outside, sighing.

"The message," Mikaela explained. "It was right in front of our eyes! Look, after the '...', the message is a little disjointed. If you take the first letter from every paragraph until the next '...', it spells 'UNDERGROUND'."

Everyone stared at her, until Barricade gave a slight chuckle.

"That explains why they used such a simple code," he grinned slightly. "The 'Cons have no chance of finding that out! You need a human- Our thinking is too complex!"

Mikaela scowled. "Are you calling us stupid?" she glared. Barricade shook his head, still grinning slightly.

"Just flexible."

"Underground _where_, though?" Ironhide asked, perplexed.

Ratchet rolled his eyes, and began to scan the earth for any large, hollow caverns. He soon found one- the end of it only just reached one corner of the base. "Were there any caverns here, though?" he asked confused. Optimus shook his head.

"No- Wait. Wheeljack! Why did we appear in the middle of the town, instead of the previous location of our base?"

Wheeljack blinked, then twitched, embarrassed. "I may have miscalculated a little..."

Optimus sighed. "Never mind. In this situation, it's a good thing."

"I don't envy Keller having to explain this, though," Barricade laughed as Keller threw him a sharp look.

Sam frowned, glancing at Barricade. _How can you be so... cheerful? _he commed.

_I'm not!_ Barricade instantly growled back, glaring at Sam. _You just learn to lock out these things after a while. And please, never call me cheerful again..._

_Is that your way of trying to cheer me up?_ Sam teased. Somehow, talking with Barricade in this way made things seem better. For a while, he was happy to slip back into the old routine and simply forget what had happened to Earth.

_No way,_ Barricade scoffed, glaring slightly.

Ironhide looked around at the quiet mechs, and glared. "What are we waiting for?" Without a further word, he blasted a hole through the floor where the cavern was. Optimus groaned as yells and cries came from the cavern below, likely people who thought that the monsters above were invading.

Ratchet glared at Ironhide, who glared back impatiently. Sighing, he moved over to the hole, calling down "We're not going to hurt you!"

Silence.

"...We are the Autobots."

More silence. Then a voice spoke- One that sounded rather familiar.

"Are you?"

"Epps?!" Will called down through the hole, delighted that his friend hadn't been infected by whatever energy it was affecting the humans.

"Will!" Epps seemed surprised. "It _is _them! Boy, am I glad ta hear your voice! It's a nightmare in here I tell you!"

Will shook his head, a shadow of a smile crossing his face before he called down "We're coming down!"

"It's not safe out there yet?" Epps was disappointed. "Can't you guys do anything?"

"It's not quite safe, but the base is cloaked so you can come up if you want," Will answered, looking at Optimus uncertainly as he said this. Optimus nodded in affirmation; the base was still cloaked.

"How is it out there?" Epps asked, hesitantly.

"Not good." Will responded immediately.

"Then you'd better get down. You're gonna need a break from all of that shit!" Epps called back.

Will sighed, raising an eyebrow at the other humans as they nodded, recovering from the shock of what their home had become. They climbed into the hole, Will going in the last. After the humans were safely clear of the hole, the 'Bots enlarged the hole with carefully calculated cannon blasts, not wanting to risk collapsing the structure inside.

Eventually, everyone with the exception of Optimus Prime was able to get themselves into the hole, though they had to sit down once inside. Thankfully the cavern had been built large and, as Epps explained, enlarged as they spent time inside, in anticipation of the possibility of the Autobots returning.

The cavern was nothing special- It was what you'd expect of an underground resistance that had a working generator. Dimly working lights and barely operating technology. They had, miraculously, managed to connect to the internet, or what was left intact of it, in order to send the plea to the Autobots.

A sudden chittering got their attention and Frenzy suddenly popped up around the corner, chattering in quick Cybertronian excitedly. Barricade, slightly surprised, was only barely able to suppress a fond smile as he was reminded of the time he and his partner had spent on Earth, until they had separated. He had been, admittedly, worried for his smaller partner, especially when he had heard no word of his partner for days.

Sam and Bumblebee were the only ones who caught Barricade's quick smile, and exchanged smirks.

Everyone who had been on the moon base had to grin a broad grin then, as Maggie and Glen followed Frenzy out, and Simmons walked out of a corner with the teen's parents, including Sam's. The relief that they felt was palpable- Their friends had survived. Will gave a broad grin as Sarah, slightly shyly, came around the corner, holding their daughter.

Everyone had been reunited.

Their relief was palpable, considering how close the group had bonded after the Mission City fiasco. They had been through the same situation, and they were the only people they could relate to.

"How did you all escape, though?" Sam wondered aloud.

"We've checked- Everyone here has either been in close contact with the Allspark, or spent a long time with someone who has." Simmons answered, his expression grim. "It's energy was somehow able to negate the effects of whatever it is affecting everybody else."

"I hate to spoil this reunion," Optimus called. "But you should see this."

---

The humans and mechs all stared in surprise at what was going on outside.

It wasn't the violence. They had been expecting that.

What they had not been expecting was for a part of Earth to turn into cybertronian-like metal right in front of them.

As the watched, the ground in front of them twisted and turned, as though fighting some unseen force. This continued for a while, with stronger surges, until the earth was spiralling up several feet from the ground before it pulled itself back.

Then a sort of sigh was heard, as though in defeat, and the spire of earth shifted into one of metal.

Even as this was happening, the humans gained a slight metallic sheen, and were observed to have greater defences than normal for a human. One was throw with enough force to split the average human skull, but the man who was thrown, albeit shakily, got up again.

Even all that wasn't surprising. What was surprising were the... imprints. In the sky. Incredibly faint images in the sky, ones that showed ferocious dragons, dinosaurs, even the unevolved form of humans.

All these 'ghosts' of Earth's past and of her myths were fighting.

Against, according to Optimus, Cybertronian beasts thought to be long dead, some known not to even exist, according to Voidhammer.

What was happening?

The humans and mechs taking refuge in the base could only watch as a knot of dread formed itself in their stomachs.

"The imprint of Cybertron left on the Allspark..." Ratchet muttered, amazed, intrigued and horrified all at once.

"It must be trying to take over and change Earth." Barricade finished Ratchet's sentence as he caught on to the thought the medic had.

"And Earth is fighting back." Sam said softly.

The team could only watch in consternation as the faint images continued their duel in the skies.

Their worlds were fighting.

---

A/N: It seemed as good a place as any to end the chapter... No, I'm not bringing mythical creatures in. All will be explained in the next chapter.


End file.
